Camera back!

DP has been using the camera so much that I haven't been able to get pictures of much of anything (or get pictures off that I've taken).  However, I got it back, so I present my Love Actually cowl:



My Baba's Fence scarf:



My Plump Mitts:



and my Grackle (for the Volsung KAL):



More pics and descriptions later, but I really wanted to get these up!

It's done...now what?

I finished the Love Actually cowl - it actually keeps me warm, though it could be warmer :)

I have two pairs of slippers and a cowl to finish, and then I have to make a decision.  What next?  DP asked for another pair of fingerless gloves in fingering weight.  Colorwork if possible.  I don't know if I have the patience to make another colorwork project so soon after the cowl...I like to be able to buzz along in a pattern, and colorwork doesn't stick in my head as well as texture or cable patterns do.

In order to finish the cowl (which I have not yet actually started), I need to finish the yarn.  I'm spinning a bulky two ply from the Foxfire cormo silk alpaca, my absolute favorite spinning fiber of all time.  I finished the singles last night, so tonight I need to ply, soak, and spin out the yarn.  It's so dry in the house, the yarn will be dry by Friday, and I'll be able to start the project, which needs to be done by Monday night.

Then onto the slippers - the Non-Felted Slippers have become my go-to pattern.  I can make a pair in a day, and it's pretty easy to tweak the sizing.  I'm going to use Knit Picks Wool of the Andes bulky and worsted for these two pairs:  one Wallaby/Silver and one Jam/Avocado.  I need to double the bulky to get close to the gauge and fabric that I like, so I'm planning to quadruple the worsted.  We'll see how it works out, but I bought enough yarn so I'm not too concerned!

Cast on extravaganza

I can't stop casting on new projects!

I have the socks for DP, a pair of fingerless gloves for my sister, a scarf for my mom and now I want to cast on this.  I don't know if I even have the colors to make it, but I don't care.  Must create!

In that vein, I also made some tasty date whole wheat bread yesterday - the recipe from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book.  It tastes great, but I didn't finish it until 12:30am.  It rose so slowly, and I had to retard it in the fridge when I went to my mom's house.

Off to knit!

Gosh

It's been a long time.

Christmas knitting took up a lot of my free time, and work took up the rest.  Tasks expand to fill the time one has, I guess :)

I'm currently working on a new pair of socks for DP, since I haven't gotten around to darning his old ones.  I need to keep a closer watch on thin spots, so I can catch them before they become huge holes, which is where we're at right now.

The socks I'm working on are red heels and toes and a tan body.  At first I was annoyed, because the tan was much darker in real life than online, but now I kind of like it.  It's kind of an older, ancient looking tan.

I'm also working on a crochet afghan and the beekeeper quilt.  Little by little, they grow.

LG had her doctor's appointment and rabies shot, and once again had a reaction to it.  The reaction was milder, but still there.  Sigh.  Also, she is a little bit overweight - eek!  I guess it's the huge amounts of treats I keep feeding her.  Just a few ounces, but we'll have to work on it.

Work is work - that's all I can say for now.  It also seems like everyone else is leaving but me...maybe I'll get a raise because no one will be left :)

I've been trying to work on my spinning, particularly spinning textured yarns.  I'm going through Spin Art and trying to work on one of each of the yarns per chapter.  I got the book for beehive yarns and tried those first.  Eep.  I was able to make some beehives, but I didn't anchor them correctly, so they kind of slid around the yarn and un-beehived themselves.  Yesterday I decided to start over and did the racing stripe yarn.  That worked out much better, and it's soaking now.  I really want to make the deeply textured, lumpy bumpy stuff, but I need to walk before I can run.

Gloves are done!

Huzzah!  They are done!  I just need to get a picture for the experience to truly be over :)

I'm trying to decide which Christmas present to start on next...I'm taking a bit of a break by doing some granny-style motifs.  I just made a hexagon, and I can't believe how much I enjoyed it.  It's been a long time since I crocheted motifs.  I'm using Noro silk garden, and I think I have a bunch of skeins of it lying around, so I can keep on making them to unwind. 

I have the pattern for the next pair of fingerless gloves written out, and I think I figured out what size needle I need to use, so it's really just a matter of making them.  They should be nice - I'm using Madelinetosh :)

I had a scare earlier this week - I thought LG had eaten some poison.  It looks like she didn't, but I was so scared, I was shaking.  The problem is that she's so curious about everything, and her way of exploring new things is to chew on them.  Sigh.  I wish that she wasn't allergic to chicken, because I'd love to give her chicken bones to chew on, but she gets so sick that I don't want to try.  Interestingly, she doesn't get sick from eating her dry food (we use it as a treat or snack when we have to have dneph watch her)...does that mean that it is so processed her body doesn't even recognize it as chicken? 

In other news, I've reading Michael J. Sullivan's Theft of Swords trilogy.  The books are not the best in the world, but they are eminently readable, and they really make me want to play Skyrim!  I wish that I could find more books like these:  no sex, high adventure, lots of fun, characters that I want to be :)  I have to say it:  I wish I was Hadrian.  One of the greatest sorrows of my life is that I have no children, and one of the things that I wanted to teach my children was how to fight.  I've always thought that if I knew how to fight (box, martial arts, anything), life would be a lot more enjoyable.

Gonna make it, gonna make it

I'm on the last repeat of those blasted gloves - maybe I'll finish them before the week is over.  I just want this albatross off my neck!

I cobbled together a pair of crocheted fingerless gloves for my brother, but the yarn is a bit too scratchy.  I may use them myself, or as an over-pair.  I haven't decided.  I worked out the pattern for yet another pair, but now I have to knit them!  I've been having trouble getting the correct needle size for the yarn I'm working with, but I will persevere.

I started the KSH gloves for my mom, and almost immediately pushed them into a bag and stuffed it deep into the ottoman.  KSH is glorious when knit up, but a bear to actually knit.  I'll have to wait a bit for a less stressful time to work on them.

Once a month

Set the bar low, and maybe I'll trip over it!

I'm still working on the gloves for dneph...for some reason, I have not had the time I'd like to work on them. I have so many other things I want to do, but these are my current albatross.

I wanted to make a little sweater for my niece, but that too is not happening :)

I have my present list, and I need to get started on it.  I think I need a day of organizing projects, with yarn and needles, and then just busting through them.  

I saw the new posters for The Hobbit today, and several of the dwarves have knitted fingerless gloves!  Even Gandalf looks to have a stockinette pair.  The others seem to be in seed stitch, and one looks like it's actually crocheted, or possibly sideways garter stitch.  If I could get my yarn together, I think I could recreate them.  One pair looks like my pair of "this and that" mitts, so I should probably write that up asap.

That's pretty much my life right now.  I work, come home, wash dishes, go to sleep, go back to work.  I'm really only getting knitting done on the bus, which is just an hour a day.  Ack!

Lady Grey is doing well.  She's 13 months old now, and getting so big!  She's also growing her winter coat, so I have to be vigilant about matts.  She has two that I haven't been able to cut out because they're right under her front legs and I just can't get to them.  I still take her out for her walks, and she's progressed to walking in the front yard now too.  She loves chasing rabbits and squirrels (though I don't let her catch them), but she also just likes to sit outside, with her tail wrapped around her legs, and look at everything.  She's such a wonderful kitty.

Gloving it

I still have the gloves for Dneph on the needles, but he really wanted some right away, so I made him a plain pair out of the leftovers of the Limari.  He likes them well enough to wear them to school and around the house, taking them off only to eat and bathe :)  When I finish the other ones, I can use them as a gift of some sort.  I do want to get them done, but they take concentration and the chart is a bit bigger than I'm comfortable with using on the bus.  Ah well.

I'm going to be babysitting my nieces next weekend, so I need to come up with some projects.  I'm thinking of doing the woven felt pillow with my oldest niece.  The nice thing is that you end up with a finished object at the end!  DP offered to take me to the fabric store, so we might do that tomorrow.  We could also do some food projects - maybe make some of those cake pops.  Rather than using candy disks to coat (tons of poisons) we could just use chocolate, maybe mixed with some coconut oil for stability.  Both projects should use up chunks of time between snacks and naps :)

I'm in the middle of DP's scarf right now, and worried about running out of yarn.  I went back to the yarn store, but they were out of that color, though they did have a ton of Madelinetosh DK.  I prefer Vintage weight, but I had a gift certificate, so I just went with it :)  My sister also asked me to add on to the twins' winter hats, because they are a bit too short.  I don't think I have any of that Madelinetosh left, but I might have something in near the same weight.

I also have an idea for a cowl floating around in my head.  It's based on the Brising necklace, and I'm thinking of either a gold yarn or a silvergilt (maybe that silk/cashmere?).  Maybe using chain ribbing and one large motif in the middle.  I just have to decide who to give such a thing to!  I'm planning my attack for Christmas, so now is the time to get the pattern ideas worked out.  Food items and/or sewing might also play a part, and I already have a book for the oldest of my younger brothers.

Regrouping

The holiday season is so stressful that it's pretty much mandatory to have a day off to rest and reset my brain.

Right now, I'm working on gloves for Dneph, and I have a scarf in the works for DP.  I have a list of other things I'd like to start on, but I'm trying to hold off actually starting them until I finish one of my current projects.

I love the fall, but this year I'm feeling more melancholy than usual.  I can't really explain it.  I'm hoping that crafting will cheer me up.

Crafting season

After a long, slow summer, I'm suffering from a case of start-itis.  I have a Beekeeper's Quilt and fingerless gloves on the needles, and I'm about to cast on a pig.  I also bought another couple of patterns...something about the fall weather just makes me want to craft like a madwoman.  I've started a Christmas list, and I might actually follow it!

In other news, I have my teenage nephew living with us.  It's crazy to 1. have another person in the house, and 2. have a teenage boy in the house.  It takes some getting used to :)

I finished that swap shawl, but I don't think I have a picture of it anywhere!  Argh.  It was 18 oz of two ply fingering weight that I made into a faroese shawl with a lace band and gusset.  Maybe I can find a pic somewhere...

I finished the Diamond Waistcoat socks (finally!):



They fit well, and I'm going to try to write up that pattern, maybe with a variation.

I also finished Uinen:



But it didn't fit :(  It was actually too wide in the shoulders, so at least it wasn't because I gained too much weight!  I gave it to my little sister, who is taller than me and wider in the shoulders, and it fit perfectly!

I also made a pair of fingerless gloves for DP (which Dnephew tried to snag):



They're exactly the kind of thing DP likes, so I was happy to find them.

Hmmm...too hot?

I didn't end up spinning any yesterday - it was both too hot and too windy!  My hope is to get something done tonight, but I don't know how that will work out.

In other news, I made some no-knead quick yeast bread yesterday.  It didn't turn out too badly, but I didn't take the plastic wrap off before I baked it - yuck!  I was wondering why the crust was so shiny, even without an egg wash :)

I'm really just counting the hours until I can go home and spin - sad when you begin the day wishing for it to end!

Onwards!

Spinning, spinning...

I joined another swap (blush).  I know, I shouldn't have done it, but the swap deadline is before the Olympics start, so I'll be fine.  It's a shawl swap, and I spent yesterday afternoon with pencil and calculator working up the pattern.  I think I have it mostly set at this point, at least enough to get started.

DP said that I could buy yarn for the project (we're trying to tighten our belts currently), but I decided to spin it from some Cupcake Fiber Co batts in stash.  I got 2 oz of two ply spun on Sunday, and I hope to maybe spin another ounce today.  It would be great to get 5 oz spun up...in time for me to spin up 7 more!  I decided that I needed a bit of insurance, and since it comes in 6 oz increments, I had to get another box :)  I'm excited to blend the two fibers:  I'll be doing 2 2oz skeins of each, 1 1oz skein of each, and 1 2oz skein of blend.

I wanted to go with a 2 ply, even though I usually do shawls in singles, because I want something a bit heartier.  If I have any left over, I might even eke out a pair of fingerless gloves, but we'll see about that.  I'm also using two different fiber blends - one blue faced Leicester and one Merino, with the Merino being on the part closest to the neckline.

With these swaps, it's always hard when your partner doesn't give you a lot to go on.  If their likes are just "knitting" and so are their hobbies, what's a person to do?  What I do is pretty methodical, and the closest I'll ever get to my dream of being a private investigator's secretary.  I go through all their posts on Ravelry to see what personal information lies within.  I check their projects, favorites and queue.  I cruise the boards that they're members of.  If they have a blog/flickr account/website, I check it out (unless it's F@cebook, since I'm not on it).  I G00gle them and see if there are any groups they're part of, or if they're in the news.  Usually that nets me enough information to go on.  But you can never tell if that's the real person or just their persona, so I always have that fear that they'll hate whatever I make.

In old business, my swap partner for the GoIaF swap liked her patchwork blanket!  I'd love to make one of them again - you take wool felt, cut it into squares and just seam them together overlapping (thank you Purlbee!).  I added a border and backing to hers so that it would be warmer and able to be used as a ground cover for picnics/fireworks/etc.  She made me an amazing wall hanging that is now over our fireplace.  DP loves it.

Back to spinning!

Finished!

The cardigan is finished and fits great! 







My only issue is that the yarn I used was a bit too variegated, so the cables don't pop as much as they might.  However, I'd make this again, in a solid or semi-solid; that's how much I enjoyed it.

Now I'm back on bus socks, trying to get them done in the next few weeks or so.

I'm also finished with the items for my swap partner for the ASOIAF swap.  Unfortunately, I don't know if I'll get to the post office today, so it might have to wait until Monday to be mailed out.  I really hope she likes the items...I tried to make them reflect Arya, Bran, and the wolves.  I'm always worried about swap stuff - will the person like it, will they absolutely hate it, etc.  I hope that the things are okay.

I had thought of giving her a book of crochet patterns inspired by Jane Austen, but the book was totally panned, so I didn't think it would actually be worthwhile to give.  Sometimes it's not the thought that counts :)

I'm planning my knitting for the Ravelypics, too.  I think I want to try to finish that cardigan I started two years ago.  It just needs the sleeves done, to be sewn up, and the button bands put on.  I love cardigans, but there is something that keeps me from finishing them unless I have some hard deadline imposed from outside.  Ah, psychology.

Decreasing, hooray!

I'm in the decreases, so I'm very excited.  I'm not going to think about how many more rows to go, just that I get to decrease now :)

In other news, I got a cappuccino today from a local coffee shop.  Once a month or so I get a fun coffee drink, and today was the day.  There are two coffee shops by work, both about the same distance I think, but one feels closer.  I keep going to the "closer" one, even though they're pricier and not as good.  The cappuccino I got today was curiously light when I picked it up - it was mostly foam!  I know that it's a drink with a lot of foam, but this is ridiculous.

Tinking, frogging, etc.

Argh.  I was all set to finish the back today, but then I realized I had missed several decreases along the way on one side.  Rather than rip out all those rows, which would have taken hours to knit again, if I could even find where I went wrong, I ripped out just the section that was screwed up.  Problem was, it took a hour and a half to fix.  Hopefully blocking will help the weird gauge on those stitches, but seriously?

At least I'm at the point where I just need to knit 17 more rows to finish the back chart.  Then 5 rows later, I can add the sleeves.  Once I get those sleeves added, I get to actually decrease, which makes me very happy.

What's that about a break?

I've been working like crazy on the cardigan, but the going is slow.  LG around means less time for knitting.  Either I'm playing with her, making food for her, or asleep :)  Seriously though, I've had less time to work on this than I'd like.  I was planning on getting a lot done on Friday, but I had to work late, and then was at the symphony, so the day only included about an hour and a half of knitting time.

I'm hoping to finish the back this week.  I'm on row 60-something, and there are over 200 rows, so I have a ways to go.  I'm really looking forward to the point on row 141 when I get to join the sleeves to the body and actually decrease.  I love decreasing. 

In other news, my brother will be coming to live with us for about a month in June, and then our nephew will move in in July.  It will be interesting to see what living with other people is like again.  We haven't had any long term houseguests for a year or so now.

Eventually I'll have some pictures of the cardigan, but for now, just imagine something that starts out in a rainforesty type blue on the bottom and transitions up to a blue-grey on the top.  The drawbacks of not having 4 skeins of the same color :)

That was a long break

I don't know why it's been so long! 

I just started a cardigan from the DIC Smooshy I bought a few months ago.  It's not the cardigan I was planning, but a test knit.  Those seem to be the only things I finish in a reasonable amount of time!

Work is crazy busy, and likely to get crazier.  LG is growing fast, and I'm constantly worried about her, afraid she'll get sick, hurt, etc.  Argh.

I'm planning on actually posting in May, if only to have a record of the work on this cardigan.  Oh no...I just realized that last May was when my back injury happened, and I was working on a cardi test knit at the time.  Eep!

Spring already?

Even though it's not technically spring yet, we're having warm weather.  I went on a walk with my niece yesterday and ended up carrying her piggyback for most of it.  Blagh - it was so hot and uncomfortable!

I finished the one double heelix sock for DP, but still haven't even cast on the second.  I need some quiet time to concentrate on that heel; once I'm done with that, it's smooth sailing.

I pulled out that cardigan, but I don't know if it will even fit me now.  I need to start exercising again; I haven't done any real load bearing exercises for the past year because of my back problems.  For health's sake, I need to get myself into shape again.  My upper body isn't the problem - work takes care of that - it's the waist down that's the issue.  If only moving furniture whittled one's waist!

LG (Lady Grey) is doing well and growing like a weed.  Her last weigh in was 7.5 lbs.  When we got her, she was about 4 lbs.  Time sure does fly.  She's learned to sit, and to "show me" when she wants something.  Sometimes it's just for someone to come with her to the litterbox :)

We're still working on not scratching people in fun - she knows what "be nice" means - but she's still young, so she gets worked up at times. 

She's really enjoying her raw diet.  Unfortunately, she has a chicken sensitivity, which means that chicken (raw or cooked or in any food) gives her intestinal troubles.  So we're stuck with beef right now.  We might branch out into lamb at some point, depending on the budget.  I'm also wondering about rabbit, but I don't think it's worth buying a bunch of it if she turns out not to like it.

Harnessing

We got a harness for Lady so she could go outside without DP holding her.  It took me a while to figure out how to get it on (we put it on a teddy bear first) but once we put it on her, she was fine with it.  Crazy!  DP clipped the leash on, and they took a walk in the backyard.  She was jumping really high and almost pulling him along!

I'm so happy we have her.  She's just the sweetest, even when she's being bad ;)

I'm still working on the socks I started in January.  For some reason, I just haven't been able to concentrate on knitting.  They're the double heelix socks from Knitty, so after the heel it's just boring stockinette for size 10s...that might explain it.

I really want to finish the cardigan I started two years ago...I just have the halves of the sleeves to go and the sewing up to do.  Again, I just can't seem to concentrate on it.  I want to start another cardigan (or two!) but I will not until I get this thing finished.  Ack!

The snow is so beautiful

I wish today was Friday night so I could stay up all night watching the snow.  It's falling in huge flakes and everything is covered up.  DP took Lady out for her nightly walk, and she was just bouncing through the snow.  She was so sad to come in that DP had to take her back out!

I've said it before, but the snow is so peaceful.  You just feel quiet, watching it.  And DP in the snow with snowflakes on his black hair is lovely.