Monday, November 29, 2010

I've lost the camera

I took pictures on Thanksgiving and put the camera in a safe place while guests were here. Now it's missing! It can't have gone far, but I've looked in each room of this house and it's not here. I'd ask DP if he put it somewhere, but he's already asleep. Blargh!

I watched Aeon Flux this weekend (in Rifftrax format). Man, it was such a poser movie. It was way too self aware and tried too hard to be cool. it was funny with the Rifftrax guys though :)

Leslie Nielsen just died - in his memory, I plan to watch Forbidden Planet tonight and raise a toast.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Back to the grind

All is as it was. Thanksgiving is over - it was pretty fun - and I go back to work tomorrow. Sigh.

I just made these cranberry sauce muffins using the leftover cranberry-orange-ginger relish from Thursday. Super delicious! DP and I each had three in quick succession. I'm going to tell my mom and sister about them, though they'd have to make cranberry sauce in order to have it left over at this point :) I also made a turkey soup with the leftover turkey carcass and meat. It was pretty tasty, though we couldn't finish it all, so I put the leftovers in the freezer. That way, I'll be ready to make homemade turkey pot pie sometime this winter.

I'm plugging away at Uinen, my Sprossling. I'm about a third done with the back. I might finish the back this week, if I play my cards right, leaving me just the arms to finish before Christmas. I love the feel of the fabric.

I also want to swatch for that Thandie funnel neck from the latest Interweave Knits, but I have to wind the laceweight first, and that's about 1500 yards worth. Right now, I don't want to give up valuable knitting time for winding time. I was going to do it last night, but I was so tired I fell asleep at around 10:30.

I haven't really gone out this weekend, which is probably for the best, since crazy shoppers might be about. I'd like to go out and get a Christmas tree, but maybe I should wait until December...I'm just not sure. I don't know how long they last, and I don't want it to be completely dessicated by the 25th. We decorated the basement on Friday with lights and the mini tree, since we were trying to occupy my niece while my sister took a nap. It looks very cozy, and I think it will be even better once we get the tree. Maybe my sister et al will help us decorate!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

What next?

Now that Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I'm going a bit crazy. There are only a few weeks left until Christmas, and I haven't really made or bought anything for anyone. I want to finish my fingerless gloves (turns out they weren't needed for the swap, so they're not done) and DP's socks, and start another pair of socks for DP that I just got the yarn for. But I still need to come up with something for my brothers, my sister, my parents, my niece and all of DP's family. Money's always good, right?

I really enjoyed writing up the two patterns I put on Ravelry, and I want to write up more of the things I make. It's actually fun :) But I need to focus, which has been difficult lately.

On the spinning front, I'm way behind in where I wanted to be. I'm getting better on the charkha, but I haven't had as much time to practice as I'd like, and I haven't been able to knit up any of my handspun that I made with projects in mind. I haven't even finished the weaving I started at the beginning of the summer.

As you can tell, my brain is all over the place...I feel like I can't get anything done, but all that does is make me too discouraged to even try. Help!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The future is now

I got the Winter 2010 Interweave Knits in the mail on Friday, and I'm dying to make a sweater or two out of it, and possibly use the argyle pattern in some armwarmers. However, it's so new that I can't find any of the patterns on Ravelry yet! I'd really like to see someone's interpretation of the Thandie funnelneck pullover before I make it.

Thanksgiving is almost here, and spent the morning cleaning the bathrooms. For the rest of the day, I make a deal with myself: between football quarters and at halftime, I have to clean something. It's worked out so far; I only have the kitchen floor and dining room table left, plus vacuuming the house. I can't vacuum when DP is napping, so it will just have to wait until he wakes up (or he could do it when I'm at work :) ).

I only have about 15 more edging repeats to do on Bonfire Glade, my Woodsmoke scarf. I'm loving the springy feeling of all the garter. My niece also seems to enjoy it; she tried to appropriate it last night!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

I hate strife

Friday was such a horrible day - I was literally sobbing at my desk from about 9am to 11:30am. The worst thing is that nothing can be done about what made me so upset. "Oh God, that I were dead."

I got the extra skein of Madelinetosh for my woodsmoke scarf, so I should have enough to finish the edging. For scarves, that's my main issue when I don't check gauge. They'll always fit someone, but you might not have enough yarn to finish!

I finished one of DP's socks (I chucked the argyle for now and went with a straight stockinette sock with an afterthought heel). DP loved the afterthought heel, which makes it easy to keep the striping sequence in all these handpainted sock yarns I have running around. I'm also thinking of overdyeing the Schaefer Anne that I had gotten for his next pair of socks - it's a blend of bright oranges and pinks, but there's more orange than pink. I think I'll overdye orange...or maybe yellow?...to try to brighten the color up. He doesn't mind pink, but he asked for orange socks :)

Finally, I'm working on some wristwarmers/mitts for a swap. I bought the yarn without a plan for it, but I think I have something awesome now. It will be based on King Thingol's realm - he's the lord of beech and oak and elm - and it will be made of Malabrigo sock. I'm very excited!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Sweaters - argh

I realized I have two sweaters "on the needles" right now (even though one is in pieces and not on any needles really). One is Sprossling by Anne Hanson - a great design, and made in pieces. The other is my cardigan made out of Rowan felted tweed - just a simple raglan I worked up. Sprossling I might just put off to the side until I get a few days off, because I can't work on it without checking my notes to make sure I do the shaping right (downside of working in pieces.

My raglan is another story. I've knit this yarn into 3 different sweaters, but never finished any of them. I keep making them too big! I'm not tiny, but for some reason I always make things so big that I can't even wear them. I had this iteration of the cardigan done to about 8 inches past the armscye, but when I tried it on it was about 4 inches too big around and the armscyes were huge! Rather than rip the whole thing out (I cant bear to do the raglan increasing again) I ripped back to the split for the arms and unraveled about an inch or two past. Then I laddered down and put an 8 stitch cable on each arm and on each front to pull in the excess. I tried it on again, and I think it's worked. I'm also casting on a steek and working it in the round, because my other sweater is back and forth and and I need a break :)