Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Woot!

Woot! is all I have to say. My first sock is coming along nicely, although I have to admit that I am slightly worried that it's going to be too big. Oh well, if they are, all the more comfy.

I have to clean out my room tonight. I have TONS of yarn sitting in there. It all needs to join the rest of its family (Stash, Yarn Stash) in the study. It should be really nice and I should be able to divide and conquer a little at a time. I've been doing a lot of knitting, since my sinuses have decided to revolt against my throat, and now apparently my ear as well (it started hurting a little this afternoon). Oh well, more knitting time means socks sooner. I keep wanting those socks so badly...I can just imagine curled up on the sofa with those multicolored socks warming my feet. =0)

Monday, November 28, 2005

Sock Progress

Well, I finished the first pair of Cigar gloves for my brother. The second pair will come once I get some other projects done.

I turned the heel on my first sock! Woot! It's very exciting. I'm working on the gusset now. Oh, and more good news, I got the cable for the digital camera, so hopefully I can post pictures soon! It's been a long-time coming, I know.

The Georgia/Georgia Tech game was Saturday, and that provided good knitting time, with the exception of not having my pattern handy. So, I had to spend most of the third quarter writing it down. It was a sad game, since Tech didn't win. They should have won. It was a very football holiday weekend for me. I think I watched about 3 games total, with hubby watching at least 4 football games and catching pieces of college basketball games. Some days I just can't win for losing.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Progress

Well, I finished pair 1 of Cigar gloves. Woot! I have started the heel of sock #1. Woot! I'm hoping to finish sock #1 over Thanksgiving, and Friday I can get all my patterns organized. Hmm...it's time to start thinking how best to organize them. Any thoughts?

I also have to bake shortbread and a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. I thought about making a homemade apple pie as well, but since there will be a sweet potato pie there too, it might be a little overkill on the desserts.

Tomorrow is hubby's birthday, and we're headed to see this movie:





There's another Woot! I uploaded a pic with no problems (I hope). It's the first of many (I hope) on here. I'll take some pics this weekend and hopefully get a cable to the digital camera and post them (cross your fingers that I can find it).

Cool Thing I found while reading blogs...

Your Birthdate: March 23
You're not good at any one thing, and that's the problem.You're good at so much - you never know what to do.Change is in your blood, and you don't stick to much for long.You are destined for a life of travel and fun.
Your strength: Your likeability
Your weakness: You never feel satisfied
Your power color: Bright yellow
Your power symbol: Asterisk
Your power month: May

Monday, November 21, 2005

Wow...I'm bored at work.

Well, I'm bored at work. I have a ton of text to enter, and it's boring. It's mind-numbingly boring. So, I'm blogging. It's nice to be bored at work, for once. I have enough to keep me busy, but not enough to stress me out. I love a good balance.

So, I did actually finish the purple sweater, and I hated it. So, it's now in the frogging pond as well. I didn't work much on Cigar gloves, but today at lunch, I did finish the pinky of the second glove. That means only the thumb left, and then weaving in ends. Woot! It's close to being done. I think I found a pattern for the lovely mohair. A lovely lady from one of the lists I'm a member of sent me this link for a suggestion. Well, it was the only suggestion I got, but I think it would do WONDERFULLY for that yarn. I might even make 2, and give one to a friend. I also have another mohair blend that would look stunning in that. It might get made 3 times.

I think I'm going to try my hand at designing a sweater out of the purple stuff. I was at one point thinking of doing this sweater, but it needs to be up-sized for me. I'm just not sure that it should be all one color. I already emailed the designer and she was most encouraging about up-sizing it. I haven't decided if I'll do that one, or create my own, or a little of both.

Am I the only one who finds they always modify patterns? I think maybe it's because I'm just never content with how something looks on me, or perhaps it's just that I try to do stuff that's too small. Or maybe I just like to work on my math skills. I should keep a notebook on stuff like that. The calculations and whatnot of patterns I mean. Perhaps there's a perfectly logical mathematical formula for all of it. Ok, that was scary...I just sounded like a mathematician. I guess I am a mathematician for the business world.

I have also realized that in oh-so-many ways I'm WAY too practical. I'm trying to not be so practical for some things, and I think I need to extend that into my knitting. I need to go for what I like, whether or not it's practical. Who cares about practicality?! You only live once, and you should do as much as you can in this life. I'm not promoting insanity, but having fun. We all could use more fun in our lives. Who ever laid on their deathbed and said "I wish I didn't have as much fun in my life"? If someone has, I've never heard of it. Let's be thankful for what we have this week, and work hard on the knitting and have some fun with it! I might just free-form knit with the purple stuff. =0)

Friday, November 18, 2005

I'm trying!

I'm really trying to blog more! Look here...two posts in one week! Ok, so here's the progress. I have about 4 rows left on my purple sweater, so hopefully it'll be done this weekend and ready for wear come Monday. That will be nice, since it's started getting cold here. It got down into the 20s last night. That's cold, even by northern standards. *grins* I am working on the pinky of my brother's Cigar gloves. That should also hopefully be completed this weekend.

The next project is to take out my mohair sweater. I just don't like it. It's too big and clunky (if a sweater can be clunky). I've decided it's in the frogging pond and will be frogged soon. I think it will be a beautiful wrap instead. I think mohair works better for a wrap than for a sweater anyway.

Ack! I almost forgot about my socks! I have one pair on the needles (I'm close to starting the heel for the first sock) and another one waiting in the wings. I also have some sock yarn for a child's pair of socks. Those might wait a couple more months, like during summer. That would be a good light project that I could do easily and quickly (I hope).

I am also trying to budget for a Master Hand Knitter's Certification. We'll see how that turns out. I'm thinking sometime (like my birthday) I might buy myself the membership and the first level. That one should be easy to complete. I saw the requirements for it, and it doesn't look like the first level is too difficult or all that time consuming (also another good project for the summer - swatches). The second requires more thought, but I'm kind of disappointed in the paper requirements. It's a one-pager. What did I take all those English courses for?! I LOVE writing papers about things I'm passionate about. They might get more than they bargained for with the papers. *smirk*

Man, I almost forgot about some of the other projects that are in hiding. I have another pair of the Cigar gloves to do, Marvin the Paranoid Android to finish (I'm in the process of making and re-working some of the original designs - not that they're bad, but for me they're more of a starting point). I also have a felting project to try (lovely shades of Cascade to knit into a bag and felt), and lots of yarn for various and sundry other projects. I'm trying to be REALLY good and not buy more yarn (but gifts are ok *big grin*) and use what I have up.

I was going to make a tri-colored sweater, but now I can't find the pattern! I know it's around there somewhere, and perhaps when I get organized I'll find it. I thought it was in a magazine, but I've looked in all the magazines I thought I had at that time and can't find it. Perhaps I'm just wrong and I made it all up. Then again, perhaps this is a dream and in reality I've already completed it. If only...*sighs*

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Once again...

I am falling behind on blogging. Oh well, at least it's for a different reason. This time I've been busy with cleaning and getting my life off of hold and started again. I'm doing a fair job of it. I love that I don't take work home with me. I love that I can leave on time without an excuse. So, what have I been doing on the knitting front? Well, I'm about 10 rows shy of finishing my purple sweater (again-the neck was too wide and needed modifying). I'm almost done with one set of the Cigar gloves my brother wants, and I'm part-way through a sock. I had problems finding a sock pattern I like with self-striping yarn. I didn't want any patterns in the sock, since I thought it would be too busy-looking with the stripes. I want to finish both pair of socks (there's another one waiting to be started) by Christmas. We'll see if that's going to really be possible. I know I'll have time to knit over Thanksgiving, and maybe I can get 2 circular needles going on the second pair, and do both socks at once. I have a dilemma...the purple mohair sweater I finished I just don't love. I need to do something else with it. So, it's to the frogging pond for it. I'm thinking a lovely lace shawl would work wonders for it. I'm hoping I'll be able to find something that I absolutely LOVE for it...this one needs a lovely pattern. I'm actually thinking of doing what David did with the other part of this yarn.

Ok, here's the story. A friend of mine had two colors of mohair, the mauvy pink and a lovely turquoise. The turquoise went to David, a friend of hers who knits. The rest went to me, because I also knit. David made a lovely wrap with his, in a leaf pattern. I'm thinking of doing the same thing, and then I can wear it with many different things, and it won't itch like crazy. I did wash the sweater, and I'm still just not crazy about it. It's definitely in the frogging pond.