Heading Out

So in 48 hours or so, I will be back on US soil, in the state of Florida. I'm visiting my parents for Christmas this year, so I'm looking forward to that. Knitting-wise, I'm taking two skeins of sock yarn, which I may get through just in airplanes and airports alone :oP I finished the pair of mittens last night, so that will allow me to relax some today I think. Here's the finished pair:I'll try to blog from Florida when I get there.

Knit on...

The Week of Knitting

Sorry that I was so quiet this week on the blog. I was attending a mandatory teaching training seminar and didn't have much time for anything aside from the classes. I did get in some knitting though. First up, I finished the Jaywalkers on Wednesday:Yarn is Lorna's Laces Mt. Creek colorway. This may be one of my favorite pairs of socks ever. Really like the colors.

And after those were finished, I cast on for a pair of Broad Street mittens out of Lorna's Laces Watercolor:Hopefully I'll get these finished this weekend and then can get ready to have a little Western culture in Florida for a few days!

Knit on...

4 days worth of knitting

After all the ripping, frogging, hurling yarn, and other things going on, I have knit 2.5 inches of 3x3 ribbing...Terribly exciting. I really need to work on the Jaywalker socks this weekend and finish those up so I can feel like I actually accomplished something knitting-wise this week!

Knit on...

Fighting With Yarn

The past couple of days, I have spent more time with maroon merino sport weight yarn than I have proof to show for it. Actually, I have no proof at all. That's because all the attempts have been ripped and frogged. Let me give you a timeline of the maroon merino:

Day 1: This will be Jaden! Hooray for lace! 20 minutes later: Uh, yeah, not looking so good here. Color doesn't show off the pattern the way it needs to...
Day 2: This will be Pioneer! Hooray for cables! 20 minutes later: Uh, wow, this doesn't seem to be working well. I'm not too fond of this in a solid color. Rippit...
Day 3: Screw patterns, I'll just cast on and make a simple ribbed pullover! Hooray for simplicity! 20 minutes later: Hm, this is looking a bit big. Oh yeah, I've lost 50 pounds. Should probably cast on fewer stitches...rippit
Today: I'll make this Drops pattern! Hooray for simple and patterned! 20 minutes later: Oh crap, this pattern is written in centimeters. 49 cm across is not going to fit over my boobs. Well, I've lost weight, so let's check. Yep, still have big boobage...rippit...

20 minutes ago, I threw the poor ball of yarn that had been worked into so many incarnations across the room and picked up a fresh ball of yarn and cast on for the bigger size of the sweater. I'm now maybe an inch into the 3x3 ribbing and quite frankly I'm afraid to take a picture of the damn thing because I may end up ripping it out once again.

Argh!

Knit on...and avoid ripping when possible!

Yarn, What Do You Want To Be?

Dear sport weight maroon merino,

Please tell me what you want to be. I tried to go by the wrongly labeled label on you that said you were DK weight. I swatched a million times for Simple Knitted Bodice and could never get gauge. Then I looked at you more closely. Hm, you looked too thin to be DK weight to me. So I grabbed another ball from the stash and sure enough, the wrong label was on you. I looked up sport weight yarn patterns and found that I really liked Jaden from Knitty.com. I have even continued to knit four repeats of this lace pattern and you look like this:I can't even see those pretty purl ridges that make Jaden so nice looking. In fact, I'm kinda loathing how you look right now.

So I think I will rip this out when I return to knitting on you on Sunday evening. I'm putting you aside for the weekend and picking up the traveling Jaywalker sock since I'm, well, traveling this weekend. Perhaps Jaywalker and I can talk and come up with a solution. Or maybe you can just tell me already what you really want to be. You're soft and a pretty color, and I really want a sweater that fits right now, so you're next to be knit. Suggestions would be appreciated.

Sincerely,
Frustrated MagicKnitter

Interruption

The lack of knitting content this week is brought to you by the letters F and P. Some words that start with F and P are:
Food
Poisoning

Will you join with me to thank the letters F and P for showing up by giving them a swift kick in the arse so that they will be on their merry way? Ready, 1...2....3...

Knit on...

A Week's Worth of Yarn

So, why haven't you heard from this week you may ask? I have a picture that will sum up the whole answer:Yep. Made a baby blanket this week. What did you do this week? :oP

Knit on...

PS: I'm casting on Simple Knitted Bodice tonight. Needs a sweater!

Travel Knitting

I took the Jaywalker sock with me this weekend while I traveled to see DF. We had a SnB on Saturday and I was able to finish the first sock. I didn't cast on for the second one, but the first one is done and I will be happy when I travel enough to finish the second one now :oPThese style socks always look hugely wide around the foot to me until I put them on. They always fit perfectly. I really like the Jaywalker pattern and knitting this sock has reminded me just how much I like the way it looks as well as the way the socks fit my foot.

That's it for now. Hopefully more progress on other things tomorrow!

Knit on...

The Blanket Grows

I didn't do much yesterday on the blanket after work because I was knocked on my arse by a funk that was almost flu-like. Instead, I stayed in bed and slept for 12.5 hours straight. It seemed to do some good though since tonight I was able to work more on the giant granny square. Here's the progress:I'm really enjoying making this and the colors are much darker than they appear in the picture thanks to the flash. This is going to be DF's niece's baby blanket for her daughter that I promised his mom I would make for her. I think this will be a nice heirloom-type piece that will hold up well since it's all out of superwash sock yarns made with merino and nylon. It's soft and durable, perfect for baby stuff.

Plus it's keeping me entertained. That's it for today. I'm off to bed again early to get rid of the last of this funk.

Knit on...

Puzzled

So as I sat here last night crocheting a granny square, I began to wonder how I managed to avoid ever making one of these in the 6 years now that I have been crocheting. Anyways, I am making a granny square throw out of leftover sock yarns. Here is the progress so far:Sorry for the very blown out picture. The camera was a little too ambitious with the flash this morning. I also finished the Tea Cozy Hat yesterday:
I'm probably going to wear this today since it was snowing this morning when I was running. Yes, snow. In November. Joy.

I also cast on a pair of Jaywalker socks to work on while on the road this weekend and I got this much done:The flash didn't work there. Go figure. That's it for today. More granny square coming up tomorrow :oP

Knit on...

Portability

I have run into a conundrum this morning. Turns out that I am low enough on whole skeins of sock yarn that I had to seriously contemplate if I really wanted to take socks as my travel knitting for this weekend. Normally I wouldn't ever give this a second thought, but seeing that I have over a month to go before I can get yarn from the States, I am having to ration the good stuff right now. I did in the end grab two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Mt. Creek colorway and walked out the door. I think these will be Jaywalkers since that particular pattern seems to wear well with the Lorna's and for some reason prevents the pilling that seems to happen with the Monkey socks or anything else with lace in it.

I almost finished the hat, but I took so long deciding on what yarn to take with me this weekend that I forgot to take a picture of it. I should be able to finish it on Sunday evening when I get back. I have about three more rows in the hat itself and then need to make 12-20 inches of 3 stitch i-cord. Hooray for i-cord....

So, that's it for this week. I'll be back on Monday with hopefully a finished hat and hopefully some sock progress to show you all. And I leave you with this on this Friday morning:

Secret Crocheting and Non-secret Knitting

The past few days I have not been blogging because the project I was working on was for a birthday present for my neighbor who may read this blog. So, I crocheted her a scarf out of handspun and gave it to her last night and of course forgot to take a picture. I'll try to get one as soon as she wears it.

As soon as I finished the scarf, I cast on for the Teacozy Hat by Wooly Wormhead. I really liked how it has that hole in the top for your ponytail to go through, and since I had long hair and like hats, I decided this would be perfect for one of the leftover skeins of Malabrigo from the Mr. Greenjeans cardigan. Here's the progress so far:2.5 inches of ribbing. About to go into the hat body now, so it should fly pretty fast from here. Hopefully I'll get a lot done on it tonight.

That's it for today. Hopefully more progress and possibly a scarf picture to show you tomorrow.

Knit on...

Of Fish Hats and Birthdays

Friday was my birthday and Sunday was DF's birthday, so we spent a quiet weekend together and celebrated with dinners and gifts. One gift I gave DF was the fish hat:The fish hat is quite cool I might add and I'm going to make another for me once I can pick out some colors that I like. I still need to add eyes to the hat to make it look better, but you can see it does look like a fish.

So happy birthday, DF! I love you and I show my love by knitting you fish hats :oP

Knit on...

Fishy Fishy

I'm addicted to this silly fish hat. I just like the basic striped color changes and the simple construction. It's fun to watch it grow and realize that the hat is using up all kinds of stash yarn. Anyways, here's the hat in progress:I think it should be finished tomorrow evening. I'm just about to the tail part now. It's flying. Hm, flying fish...

Knit on...

Getting The Mojo Back

Knitting mojo that is. I have to admit that I have been kinda blah with my knitting here recently. I finished a couple of sweaters and then was caught up in small things for other people and just didn't want to make another tiny sweater tonight. So, I pulled out the last WIP still on the needles and worked on my Clessidra stockings for a bit. Here's the sock where it stands on row 41:I knit about 5 rounds on the sock before I got hand cramps from the tiny cables. I think this sock will still be a WIP for a long time. The more I look at it though, the more I just adore it and I know that one of these days it will be finished.

But there's something else under that sock. It's whimsical and it completely has grabbed my attention. I want it done because I want to wear it now! It's the fish hat from Knitty and I cast on for it this evening. So fast, so easy, and so rediculously kitchy that I want to make 5 of them just because I can. Here's my progress on it:Welcome back, knitting mojo. Funny that it took a fish hat to get you back!

Knit on...

Musings on Christmas Knitting

I still don't have any pictures to show you, mainly because I'm too lazy to get the camera out and upload photos to here. So today I thought I would post some musings about Christmas knitting.

1. I always feel as if I MUST knit something for everyone.

2. They probably really don't care if they get something hand made or not.

3. I'm feeling like I'm cheating everyone this year by making tiny Christmas ornaments instead of socks and shawls and what not.

4. With very few exceptions, most people are going to love the idea of the little sweaters. The exceptions can bite me for all I care right now.

5. Why do knitters have this overwhelming need to knit for others during the holiday season? We are like many of the rest of the population and we wait until the last minute to do things too, only our last minute involves things that can't be picked up at Walgreens at midnight on Christmas Eve. Every year though, thousands of knitters pick up the pointy sticks around this time of the year and vow to make objects for those they care about.

6. Why do we procrastinate so much. It would be so much easier to knit one hat every month for a year and be done with the holiday knitting before Thanksgiving and Christmas/other winter holidays. Instead, we wait until November and try to make 30 hats in 30 days.

Those are just some musings I had this morning and thought I would share. Anyone else have something they have been wondering about? Leave a comment if you do. I'm a comment whore and love to hear feedback from you all!

Interruption

Just FYI, this next month may be lighter post-wise than normal. Once again, I will be participating in NaNoWriMo and as most of you know, this will start on November 1 and last for the month. However, this week I'm going to try to finish up the little sweaters so that if I don't get to making anything else for Christmas, at least I'll have those made up to give away.

This weekend I didn't knit anything though. I hurt my foot while running on Wednesday and have been just propping it up ever since. Normally this would give me incentive to knit, but when I'm injured, I actually enjoy reading much more. Just finished Born to Run and am now reading The Runner's Handbook. Gee, can you tell I would like my stupid foot to heal up? :oP

On the bright side, even though I don't mention my weight loss efforts much on this blog, I am now below 200 pounds. I haven't been below 200 in close to 4-5 years now, so I'm very thrilled with that. I also have to admit that the losing weight thing is making me hold off on some sweaters I really want to knit. I would hate to make them and then have them be too big or make them too small and never get down to that size. So for now, I'll stick to tiny sweater ornaments and socks :oP

Knit on...

Tiny Sweaters

I would post something inspirational, comical, or otherwise entertaining here, but right now, the only thing I'm doing is knitting tiny sweaters that all look the same. They're cute, but not really what I consider blog-worthy. Maybe when I finish all 10 of them I'll post pictures of the tiny sweater parade. I've got 4 done now, so just 6 more to go.

And since I have nothing else, I leave you with a random cat video. Enjoy! :oP

Let the Christmas Knitting Begin

It's that time of year again when while sitting down and crocheting some dishcloths, I have one of those horrifying moments.

What the hell am I going to make for Christmas presents this year?!?

I think that just about everyone in my family has come to expect something hand knitted or crocheted, so I have a decent sized list to work on. This year I just don't have the yarn resources to make anything really big, so I was going through the stash and found the bag of leftover sock yarns. The Lorna's Laces is currently being knit into mitered squares for a baby blanket, but the rest of the sock yarn is just sitting there, so I thought maybe Christmas ornaments might be a good thing. Here's the first one I made:Yep, tiny, tiny top-down raglan sweater. I may be addicted now. I'm on number 2 out of this yarn and may get a 3rd one out of the colorway before switching to another one. I think everyone will get a set of 3 Christmas ornaments. They'll get a sweater, a pair of mittens, and a pair of socks to hang on the tree. It'll use up my leftovers and the projects are so fast and easy that I should be able to knock out at least one ornament a day.

I also made dishcloths this weekend and spun some more, see?That's it for now. Be prepared for the tiny knitted things parade for the next month or so!

Knit on...

All Done

The mittens are all done now and will go to my coteacher tomorrow. Hopefully that'll cheer him up some after the crappy day we all had at school today. I won't go into it much here, but I will say it involved some visit from some high up in the school world and the principal was on a rampage and made classes stop so that everyone could clean our already very clean school. Anyways, here's a blurry picture of the finished mittens:Hm, now what to knit? I know I need to get working on the Donegal sweater some more, but I'm really just not feeling the sweater anymore. In fact, the idea of working more fair isle stuff right now is actually causing me to cringe. I'm much more of a cable person than I am an intricate colorwork person. Unfortunately, I love the way those intricate colorways look and so I'm tempted by them. I'm seriously considering scratching the Donegal sweater and giving it another shot in just two colors instead of 11. I think I would even be much more happy with the sweater if the spiral pattern was much more visible. Plus, I also have a new conundrum. I started Donegal almost 2 years ago now. It's now way too big. So I've got a lack of thrill about the gazillion colors and the knowledge that if I continue working on it, the sweater is going to be a really big bag on me by the time it's done.

Do you all have a project like that? I'm going to call it a guilt project. I feel like I should finish it. I'm over half way done with the dumb thing. But I also kinda hate it and want to rip it out and give the yarn away.

Matter of fact, I think that's just what I'm going to do. I think that would be a good Christmas present for the new knitter next door. She probably wouldn't know what to do with that much yarn :oP Gotta enable stash whenever possible.

Knit on...

Mittens

I'm really getting tired of the broad street mittens. Thankfully this is the last pair for a while I think, and without further blabbering, here's the finished one:There's a flap behind the hand, I assure you. And here's the progress on the second one:Almost to the fingers, thumb, and shell part. Hopefully I'll be finished with these by tonight or tomorrow. I'd like to get to working on the Donegal sweater again.

That's it for today. Maybe a finished pair tomorrow, or some other random musings :oP

Knit on...

Sock Yarn Review: The Wear and Tear Test

Ok, so no pictures even though I can tell you the mittens are nearly done. I think Donegal is coming out of hiding again now that it's getting cooler in the apartment and I can stand to have the heavy thing on me again. But this post is not about that. This post is a review of every sock yarn I have used so far for socks for me and how it has held up over the last 4 years of sock knitting. Note: I have used other sock yarns, but they have been given away as presents, so I cannot judge them since I don't know how they were cared for by the gift receiver.

Sock yarns being reviewed:
Schoeller and Stahl Fortissima Socka 75% superwash wool, 25% polyamide
Opal Rainforest (and other opal stuff) 75% superwash wool, 25% polyamide
Knit Picks Essential (Stroll) 75% superwash merino, 25% nylon
Knit Picks Simple Stripes 75% superwash wool, 25% nylon
Lana Grossa Colortweed 80% Pure New Wool, 20% polyamide
Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock 80% superwash merino, 20% nylon
Tempted Glam Grrl 63% Superwash Merino, 20% silk, 15% nylon, 2% silver


All socks have been handled the same way. I never hand wash socks, so they all have been thrown and beat up in the same washing machine and have all had equal wear.

Ok, on to Fortissima Socka:

This yarn has worn beautifully. Aside from the fact that I know these were my first pair of socks, anyone else would never know. The instep has had one hole, but I have a feeling that came into being more because it was my first sock and I may not have knit it as securely as I should have. No fuzzies. This is not a super soft yarn, but it can take a beating.

Opal:

Again, not the softest yarn out there, but they have worn beautifully. No fuzzies at all. Good workhorse yarn if you're not wanting to pamper and go the merino route. My Opal socks have never had holes pop up.

Knit Picks Essential or Stroll:

They changed the name this year but have not changed the make up. This is the newest yarn for me to try and while they feel wonderful on the feet, this yarn has led to fuzz central. I've never had a merino sock yarn pill that much. Not sure if this will stop after I shave them, but will make an update if that does end the problem. The yarn did felt a little bit. I sweat a ton on my feet.

Knit Picks Simple Stripes:

Very similar to opal as far as wear. Did get some holes on the bottom of the foot. Darned fine though and still useable

Lana Grossa Colortweed:

Another workhorse yarn. Has worn well. Wish I had made my socks smaller because this yarn stretched out on me for some reason. Socks are too loose for these to make it into normal rotation much, but they do get used as house socks. Not sure if the growing was because of me or because of the yarn itself.

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock:

I love this yarn as most of you already know. However, this yarn has not been wearing well for me. It's a weird phenomenon too. If the yarn has purple in it, it has felted and the socks have shrunk on my foot significantly. However, all the other colors have weathered well and have not shown signs of felting. I did lose 2 pairs of monkey socks to the felting phenomenon though after wearing them for about a year. The socks will fuzz some, but nothing like the Knit Picks. I think it's more just a merino thing.

Tempted Glam Grrl:

Who doesn't want sparkles in your socks? Only bad thing is that I'm rough on socks. These socks lasted less than a year for me before the soles were down to just nylon thread. Love the yarn, love the look, don't care for the short lifespan.

Hope this has been informational to someone out there :oP These are just my opinions and observations, so yours may be different. Leave me a comment about your favorite sock yarn and how well it wears. If I get a trip back to the States anytime in the near future, I may check it out!

Knit on...

Catch-up

Hey, everyone. Sorry I was gone a little longer than normal. It was Chuseok here, which is kind of like Korean Thanksgiving, so I had a nice four day weekend that DF and I used to go to Seoul and see some parts of the city that we hadn't seen before. Before I get into that, here's the current knitting:Yep, it's another pair of Broad Street Mittens. I think I only have one more pair of these to go, and the last one is for me, so I'm about done with the mitten parade. At least it's a fast, easy pattern.

So, back to Seoul. We visited Olympic Park on Friday:Home of the 1988 Olympics. On Saturday we went to Lotte World:Yeah, basically a Disney knock off, but it was still pretty fun to go to. Sunday we walked around the Hangang river park area and went up Namsan tower. Those pictures are on the other camera though, so for now, you don't get to see them :oP

Hopefully more knitting progress tomorrow!

Finito!

February Lady is done! Finished! Finito! Fin! You get the idea. Anyways, here's a picture taken with my self timer on the camera. I'll try to see if Brian can get some better pictures of this:I really like it. It's big and floppy and very warm from what I could tell in the 2 minutes I had it on. The colors are really nice and the sleeves almost matched even though I had given up tryng to actually make them match. I'm happy to have another finished sweater done now. Now on to Christmas knitting...

Speaking of, what are you all making this year? I haven't decided what I'm making for presents. I need to work on DF's Galaga sweater to see if I can get that done in time, but that's the only thing currently queued up. So what all are you doing?

Knit on...

It Was Almost Glorious

I almost finished the last sleeve on the February Lady. I'm 5 repeats away from being done with the thing, but I hit a wall at about 9:30 last night and had to put it down and go to bed. I've been getting up at 5:30 to go running on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday before I go to work. The only problem with this is that I am a little more sleepy in the evenings than I normally am. At least I'm getting in a workout though.

Anyways, here's the sweater:Have I mentioned before how much I really love the colors? One thing I realized though is that this sweater is going to be big on me. Gotta love losing weight!

Also, I did some spinning this weekend. When my hand tired of knitting, I picked up the spindle and spun for a bit before heading back to the knitting. Here's the green fluff:That's it for today. Hopefully there will be finished sweater shots on here tomorrow!

So Close...

I'm about half a sleeve away from being done with the February Lady sweater. I'm so close that all I want to do right now is go back home and sit down and finish it. Unfortunately, I also need to work in order to support my yarn habit, so I have to wait until I get home this afternoon to work on it. I'm really hoping to be done with it tonight, but it may be tomorrow since I suppose I also need to eat dinner sometime after this afternoon and that will require cooking.

Anyways, pictures up in the post tomorrow, one way or another!

Knit on...

Announcement

The body is done on February Lady and I have started the first sleeves. After much planning and sorting yarn, I realized that the sleeves will not be able to match in the gradation pattern. I have decided I am ok with this and it will not ruin the sweater for me.

Have a great weekend!

That is all...

Knit on...

Picture!

Hey, I actually have a picture for you today :oP

I am almost done with the body of the February Lady sweater. I'm now on the garter stitch bottom edging, so hopefully that will be done early next week and I can get to cracking on the sleeves and have this sweater finished soon!

Anyways, here's the picture of the blue blob:Knit on...

Yeah...

Still no pictures. I'll get some soon, I promise. I did finish a charity scarf, worked some on the mittens, and got 2 repeats done on February Lady last night. Since I have nothing else to show you, I'll leave you with a video instead :oP

I'm Still Here

I really am. Sorry for the lack of posts. I was sick all last week and didn't knit a single stitch when at home. I did manage to finish a pair of mittens, forgot to take a picture, and started a new pair of mittens and subsequently forgot to take a picture of those too, so I have a very glaring lack of photography to show you all. Perhaps tomorrow I'll have a finished scarf to show you so that all three of you who read my blog will come back :oP

Knit on...

Still Progressing

Slowly, but surely, the sweater is growing. It's now over 15 inches long and I can't wait to be done with it and wear it. Still not quite cool enough here, but it's starting to get a little cool in the mornings. Anyways, here's the picture progress:That's it for today. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have another finished object to show you. Not the sweater, because I'm not that fast of a knitter :oP

Knit on...

Half Way There

I'm now about half way done with the body of the February Lady sweater. I was able to get 2 pattern repeats done last night and I'm hoping for a lot more tonight. I spent a good majority of the evening cleaning my apartment floors which had become a little yucky since I last mopped about a month ago. Anyways, here's the Lady progress:I also started a new work project now that the Dumbledore socks are completed. I am making a pair of Broad Street Mittens for a coworker who fell in love with mine. She asked nicely when I asked her if she wanted a pair of socks if she could get s pair of those mittens instead. So she picked out the yarn from my stash and I started them on Friday. I hope to be done with the first mitten sometime either today or tomorrow.

Knit on...

Consistent

I'm definitely more consistent in my posts now that my hand is not giving me hell to knit! I did my required 4 rows on the sweater last night:It's growing nicely I think. The only reason I didn't get more done on that last night is because I brought home my work project to finish off the Dumbledore socks:I really, really like these socks! They fit perfectly (yeah, it's easier knitting socks for me since I can judge the size!) and I really like the colors in the socks.

And needless to say, I'm wearing them today! Hope everyone has a great weekend. I intend to start working on my next work project today and we'll see how far I can get on it this weekend.

Knit on...

Progress

There was actually a little bit of progress yesterday. Unfortunately, the biggest progress I made is at work right now, so I can't show it to you. I finished one sock and am almost half way done with the other. I'm hoping to finish the second sock today if I'm not too busy.

I did another repeat on February Lady. I have decided that if nothing else, I will knit 4 rows a day on this sweater until it's done. Here it is:I also worked some on the charity garter stitch scarf, so it has now grown too. I'm actually almost finished with it, so that's making me quite happy:About half a ball of yarn left until this is finished, so not too bad really.

That's it for today. Hopefully I'll have a finished pair of socks for tomorrow.

Knit on...

Growing and Shrinking

First up, the February Lady sweater is growing. I'm having a good night with my hand right now, so hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to show you even more progress. I also worked on a sock some today, but I left that at work as my work project, so you won't get to see that until one of them is finished. Anyways, here is the February Lady sweater:That is the growing part obviously. The shrinking part actually concerns my weight loss. I haven't really been talking about this much on the blog, but I am currently changing my eating habits and gaining an exercise habit and since January, I have lost 30 pounds. Here's just a random shot of me at this moment taken with the self timer:I still have about 45 pounds left until goal weight, but my next mini goal is in 10 pounds. When I hit 200 pounds, I'm going to turn myself into a runner.

The best part? I now am using less yarn for patterns :oP

Knit on...

Stew

Ok, so I'm interrupting this knitting blog to bring you vegetable stew since that was the main thing I did last night and I only got 2 rows knit on the sweater due to the constant stirring. I made a ton. Here's what it looks like:Looks much better in person, I assure you. When I say I made a ton, I really did make a lot. Like 9 supper's worth and a lunch box for today:Forgot to rotate it before posting, sorry. Anyways, it's a lot of stew and all that is now in the freezer. I make this stuff ahead of time so that when I'm lazy on my long days of teaching, I can just grab one of these and pop it in the microwave. Has all kinds of fiber and protein in it.

That's it for today. Knitting tomorrow hopefully!

Knit on...

Progress

Progress has been made on the cardigan, albeit very slowly yesterday. I was able to knit for an hour and I got a whole 5 rows knit on the cardigan. Things should go a little faster since about 130 stitches were taken off and put on options cables for the sleeves, so that's a big chunk of knitting that I get to pass and just work on the body now! Anyways, here's the cardigan so far:Hopefully there will be some visible progress on the cardigan tonight. We'll see how much my hands cooperate. They are doing much better now, but they still twinge if I try to knit for long periods of time.

Knit on...

Woot!

Ok, so last night I was able to knit for 45 minutes before my hand started to go numb on me! That's a huge improvement from the 10-15 minutes I was getting last week. This is a really short post today, but wanted to just let you know that I am alive, I am knitting again, and there should be some good progress made on the February Lady sweater to show you tomorrow!

Knit on...

Argh

Yep, so my knitting has come to an almost complete standstill this week. My right hand is not cooperating with me at all. It really hasn't cooperated with me since I climbed Mt. Halla while on vacation and I know the reason why.

When I was climbing, I had one of those hiking stick things that they sell everywhere here. It was a real lifesaver, especially when it came to helping me down the mountain, but I had a death-grip on the thing. Apparently having a death-grip on something for 11 hours may lead to both hand cramps and random numb fingers while knitting. Since I have dealt with this before, I at least know the exercises I need to do to make my hand get back to normal. The bad part? Last time this happened, it took a while for my hand to get back to normal. So, I may end up pulling out the cross stitch tonight if I have no luck with the knitting.

Argh.

Also, I wanted to put a formal goodbye to my Uncle Chuck on here today. He passed away Yesterday and was 91. It sounds like he went in his sleep and his children were all there, so that sounds rather peaceful for him. He and my Aunt Marty were two very adventurous people who pioneered some things that we take for granted today. Uncle Chuck was one of the biggest pushers for mandantory seatbelts in cars when the issue first began and I know that has led to many lives being saved. So, farewell Uncle Chuck! You and Marty both will be missed, but you'll live on in all our lives!

Knit on...

Late

Yep, I'm late on the first post this week, so sorry about that, everyone! Here's the current progress on the projects. First up is a charity garter-stitch scarf:It's about 3 feet long now. Next up is the Dumbledore sock:And last, but not least is the February Lady sweater's progress:That's it for today. More intellectual content tomorrow :oP

Knit on...

Fun With Yarn

Yesterday, I finished plying all the purple yarn that I spun up for Tour de Fleece. Here is the last finished skein:So I gave all the purple skeins their bath in soapy water and they are all drying now:
I also got a package in the mail yesterday from my grandparents and they sent me some yarn that Renee gave to them to pass on to me. My jaw about dropped when I saw the blue skein of Tempted yarn. It's pretty:And last, but not least, the February Lady sweater did grow some:That's it for this week! More posting on Monday. We'll see what sock knitting I can get done while I visit DF this weekend.

Knit on...

I'm Back!

Hey, everyone! I'm back from vacation now. Here's the extent of the vacation knitting:Uh, yeah, not so much...

I would have knit more, but my hand was numb after an 11 hour hike up a mountain and it stayed numb for almost 3 days. The rest of the time was spent running around and I just didn't have the time to knit. Yesterday I managed to cast on a February Lady sweater out of the denim yarn I picked up in Seoul:I'm only 10 rows in, so it's not much either. I also plied 2 more skeins of yarn from the Tour de Fleece spinning. One more ball of singles left to ply and then I can work on the green some more:That's it for now. I'll have some pictures of the vacation posted sometime in the near future. In the meantime, I feel like I need to catch up on my knitting!

Knit on...

Just In Time

I finished the Hedera socks yesterday just in time for vacation to start after school today! DF and I are flying to Jeju on Sunday to spend 8 days on the island. Hopefully it'll be a nice trip. Anyways, blogging will be few and far between while I'm on vacation, but I've packed up yarn and will have more to talk about when I get back :oP Here's the socks:Hey, look, they actually fit right this time :oP

I also finished the fourth baby hat:That's it for today. I'll try to pop in for a blog post while on vacation, but no promises there. See you all when I get back!

Knit on...