Knit-along Little Doggie!!

The lengths that I had to go to...

Yesterday at work I was freezing to death and I had on my Crocs with out any socks.  I don't know what I was thinking because I need to keep my feet warm to keep the rest of me warm.  So anyway, there I was freezing under several layers of hand knits and I thought about how much I really needed a pair of socks and that I have a pair under my cube that I've been knitting on for the better part of a year, and I was so desperate to be warm that I broke down and cast off my mostly knit sock, and put them on.  Yes...I wore a partially finished pair of socks...and I was WARM! 

It's what I've been reduced to.

Finally!

I got my last packages over the last 2 days and now i have my lace weight bare merino from Knit Picks for my shawl, my blocking wires, my ball winder and my umbrella swift!  I set them right up and wound up a couple cakes of my Cascade 220 to work on the Central Park Hoodie.  As soon as I get a chance, I'm going to take apart 3 sweaters that no longer fit well, or are just worn out, and wind them into cakes too.  I think there's still enough life in the yarn to recycle it, and it's in the theme of Earth Day so that works too! 
I also got this in the mail:
Socks That Rock lightweight sock yarn in Pond  Scum for my Ghostbuster's inspired socks.  I wound it up into a cake today and it's ready to go.  I also got this:
Socks That Rock lace weight Silky Thread in Tlingit (from the Raven series) for another Ghostbuster's inspired project that I have yet to design.  I've never used silk yarn, let alone 100% silk so this should be a real treat.
I'm making good progress on the Central Park Hoodie.  Working the shoulder decreases now and hope to be on the fronts very soon, as my current work sweater blew a hole in the elbow and now is among the pile to be recycled. 

I'm alive.

I've just been trying to study for my final in this class, deal with an almost 2 year old (not fun) and waiting for my yarn to arrive.  The socks that rock order should be here in the next few says so I'm really looking forward to that.  i need to knit the sample for the "slimer" socks and then get the pattern out to the Ghostbusters group.  today I'm heading to the library to pick up the copy of Barbara Walker's treasury of knitting books that i had on order and I'll see what i can do about the Zuul shawl.  (My hubby got me a action figure of Gozer on Monday... too cool!)

On the knitting front, i cast on for the Central Park Hoodie and have reached the first section of shaping the armpit.  the fabric is coming out really nicely and i have high hopes for this sweater.  right now I'm working on the work vest again because I'm just too lazy to roll another skein into a ball without my ball winder.  maybe I'll get over it and my yearning for the sweater will overcome my laziness.

More sock progress:

so i worked out the written directions only to discover that i had the decreases incorrect.  (i may have mentioned this already...)  the chart helped me to see where i had made the mistakes.  so after correcting the chart, and copying it into paint to draw in the pattern repeat, i cast on for the sock and started knitting. i've worked out how many rows of ribbing i like for this pattern, and then started the pattern only to discover that the chart is basically upside down.  i need to either knit this pattern toe-up as written, or flip the chart to be knit from the top down.  personally, i prefer to knit toe up, but i'm not really comfortable explaining that in pattern form so i'm going to flip the chart and try again.  in the meantime, i ordered the yarn yesterday so hopefully i'll be done playing around with the details by the time it arrives and i can just get right to it.

Boy!  Designing is really tough and a whole lot of work.  I'm working on a pair of socks for my Ghostbusters group on Ravelry and it's not as easy as it seemed.  After some searching, I found a pattern that I thought would be perfect.  I wrote down the pattern to take home and play with, only to find that the pattern was written to be knit flat.  that meant that i needed to tweak it a bit so that it could be knit in the round.  i worked on that part yesterday and emailed the final results to myself at work to be printed down.  later today after i finished my work, i sat down with excel to see how it would chart out.  good thing that i did, because i found that my "in the round" directions were not exactly correct.  i had to adjust some of the decreases so that they formed the shape i was going for.  then i took that info and input it into the MSPaint program so that i could crop it and draw in the pattern repeat.  i saved that and printed it out to take home.
after doing homework and some other stuff, i finally sat down with some left over Socks That Rock (as i'm going to knit the pattern from their light weight yarn) and knit a swatch with the flat directions to get an idea of the gauge in the pattern, and also knit in strait stitch to gauge that as well.  so far i'm hitting 7 stitches per inch on 2.5mm needles.  tomorrow, i'm going to cast on with some other yarn that i get the same gauge with to see if my in the round directions will work and if they make sense.

another finished object

Earlier in the week, I finished my mom's Boyfriend socks.  I made sure to take photos this morning (they will probably look like crap) and will post them when I get home have finally posted them.  I made the just to the ankles as my mom requested and not I want a shortie pair for myself from alpaca.  They are the softest and warmest darned socks ever!

Yesterday I finally decided to cast on for a Boogie Vest.  I need to use up my Gjestal Naturgarn that I have left over from my friend Tiffany's wrap and I think it'll work out nicely as the first time I ever knit this pattern (which came out great) I used a yarn that was too loose and it draped over every imperfection on my body.  I just hated to wear it because it made me look fat (at a size 6!).  It wasn't the pattern by any means!  It was my poor choice of yarn.  So I'm giving it another go.  I also plan to buy some yarn from Knit Picks to knit a Magical Earth shawl from A GATHERING OF LACE and to knit a Hug for myself (the straight stitch/cable version).  I'll keep you posted as I go.

Endpaper mitts finished

I seem to be in a flurry of finishing things that I started quite some time ago, so I went ahead and finished off my endpaper mitts.  My natalya's are just worn out and I really needed these.  Now to decide what to do with my Natalyas.  I don't have a recent photo of the completed set so this will have to do, and imagine that there are 2 of them finished. 
Next stop... mom's alpaca Boyfriend socks.

Icarus takes flight

I finally finished the Icarus shawl, and it's a beauty!  I took it for a little test drive on Easter Sunday to see how it would "perform" and how it would be received.  It was comfortable and warm, and lightweight.  I want a shawl of my own now for non-winter mornings when it's a bit chilly.  Everyone who saw it just loved it, and most people were amazed that it was hand made.  That was the best compliment I ever got.

This is the first shawl I've made that  came out a big as it was supposed to.  I think it has a lot to do with the cast off.  This shawl uses a very stretchy cast off and if I had my Shetland Tea shawl, I'd redo the cast off so that it could grow to full size.

Hopefully, Cristina will love it. 

eyes bigger than my knitting needles

Lately I've been trying this thing that I saw on the learning channel.  The doctor was talking about the secrets of skinny people (I used to be one) and one of the things he was saying is that you should eat every time you feel hungry.  Starving causes the body to panic and as soon as you go off the diet, you store up fat again.  Then he said that you can eat what you like.  He said to eat "consciously", or pay attention to your stomach while you eat.  Don't eat in front of the tv or read the first few times you do this.  You don't have to finish everything on your plate and stop feeling guilty if you leave food.  He said "is my getting fat going to help the starving children in Africa?"  Chew slower and actually *taste* your food. 

So I've been doing this for the last week and have found that I only eat about 1/3 of the food that I used to eat, and that I haven't been hungry.  I've been in the gym at work and I think this will work out really well for me and I hope to take off the 20lbs that I need to get rid of to be at the right weight for my height.  And you're wondering what this has to do with my knitting?  Well I'll tell you.

When I put food on my plate, I put way more food on than I actually need to feel full.  I'm trying to get used to how much I really need to put on there and be more realistic about it.  So I was trying to finish the Icarus shawl last night and I only had 4 rows to go, but I forgot about the border.  Then I figured I could bang out those 4 rows before bed and have the shawl soaking and blocked in no time.  Well, I forgot that each row is about 500 stitches now and that the cast off row counts so I actually have 5 rows, and that I've never been able to spend less than 30 minutes blocking a shawl, so finally after midnight, I gave up and went to bed.  Non-realistic knitting goals.  Just like my idea of how much food I really need in a day.  I have a lunch box stuffed with snacks and sides, and I can't even finish a PB&J before I start to feel full.  But I *will* finish this shawl today if I have to knit till I explode or have to unbutton my pants at the table. 

Someone pass the Alka Seltzer.

Mid-terms and Shawls

Hello!

Oh how I have missed you all.  I've been studying my lesson and trying to get prepared for my mid-term next week.  And when I haven't been doing that, I've been trying to finish the Icarus shawl.  I have 4 rows left and they're all the same so it's gotten very boring.  But I'm going to finish this! and I hope to have it done so that I can test drive it for Easter before giving it to its final owner.  Then I'll start my mom's boyfriend socks, although I'm still not sure which yarn I'll use.  Photos of the shawl as soon as it's done.