I should really train for this.....

(What is with me and ellipses......anyone else notice I use a lot of those?)

Alright, so it's, what......11:15PM CST and I have had to put the hoodie down. Since Monday night, I have Kitchenered the hood (more on that later), picked up and knit the button band, and woven in any extraneous ends. The only thing missing are the sleeves.

And I have to stop.

You know when you knit too long and your hands start cramping? Usually you take a break for an hour or so, do some stretches and whatnot. Normally, I would have. But I am on a deadline people. I have a flight into Albuquerque in the morning and I am planning on walking off the plane in this sweater.

So, I push through the pain like one of those crazy athletes. Seriously, you need to train to be able to knit this long. We should have training camps for "Athletic Knitting". And what happens went you push too hard through the pain? You end up having to type most of a blog post with one hand.

Yeah, yeah, all will be better in the morning, but how freakin' anti-climatic is it to be so close and you physically can't do it?

Yeah, okay, so maybe some of this is the after affects of a couple of Venti Fraps and a large soda combined with slight sleep deprivation. But I digress......

See you on the flip side......I'll be the crazy one in an airport terminal sewing sleeves onto a sweater.

To Kitchener or not to Kitchener........

......in other words, Do I like my hair in my head as opposed to pulling it out and throwing it on the floor?

WOO HOO!!! My hood is done....well the knitted part anyway. So, all that I have left is to sew on the sleeves, do the button band, and sew the top of the hood together. But here is the thing.....

....I haven't bound off the hood yet. Why? Because I am actually considering Kitchenering it together. Normally, this doesn't phase me too much, but is always plain stockinette. Here, folks, we have some ribbing. So.....yeah.....

Am I crazy? I know it will be hard and liquor will probably have to be involved, but I know it will probably look 10x better. That, and I have a feeling that a three-needle BO will just bug the hell out of me. Will I see it? Yes, I have been known to use the hood on a hoodie so I will see it more than those who merely use it for show. I dunno.....anyone have any suggestions? Tips?

I gotta give a shout out to my homegirl who finished her CPNSH. I think her's turned out great, even though she cheated and put a zipper in. Now I'm gonna have to find buttons.......

Happy Single's Awareness Day!

....THE day where you are more aware of your singleness than any other day. This is followed at a distance by Christmas and Thanksgiving, when your family asks why you aren't married yet.

Since I am not supporting the greeting card, jewelry, or chocolate industry, some single friends and I are going to go support the fermented beverage and sushi industry. Yeah, wrap your head around that one.

Knitting is progressing at a comfortable pace. I am about a quarter of the way through the hood and still have a week of knitting left. I have been on a button hunt, but have so far be unsuccessful. I have a feeling that this may get worn for a while without buttons. Buttonholes, yet, but no buttons.

Isn't that a knitting fashion trend?

Really? REALLY?!?

Good News: The sleeves are done! So, the body and sleeves are now blocking and I will start the hood tomorrow. I am not going to state my expectations 'cause I am just trying to keep my head down. But, let's just say I am leaving for a trip in 10 days and I am hoping to take this sweater in fewer pieces than it is currently in.

Annoying News: I call is annoying 'cause it wasn't really BAD, just annoying. Look what I ran into when I was three rows from finishing one of the sleeves:Yeah, I hit the end of the ball, the ONE, FULL ball I used for the ENTIRE sleeve, three rows before the end. Like I said, not bad, just annoying.

Thanks for all of the get-well wishes. I am feeling much better. Let's call it 98%....it's like a recovery period. Apparently it is something that's been going around. I have several culprits of who gave it to be, so I will chock it up to one of those "things". This Monday was better than last Monday for me....so I am hoping that had been true for everyone!

Ugh....TGI-freakin'-F.....

Alright, so since I started working at the bookstore, TGIF doesn't quite have a the same ring to it anymore, but I still dig the sentiment. I am mainly just glad this week is almost over. Let's see....

Monday....get yelled at by a crazy customer (this was verified by other nearby customers and store personnel) for trying to do something she wanted me to do. Like I said, she was crazy.

Tuesday....Knit Night. Yes, some good ol' knitting time. What?!? I sat and knitted for over 2 hours and only did three rows?!? Okay, I should clarify that. I knitted and UNKNITTED for 2 hours and only got 3 rows done. Man, my throat is scratchy tonight....

Wednesday....Wake up for work at 6am....no, wait strike that. "Waking up" assumes that I went to sleep in the first place. Why couldn't I sleep? That would be the viral sinus thing/"The Crud"/"The Plague"/bronchitis "Thing" that attacked me with swift accuracy. This resulted in no knitting getting done and lots of drug intake.

Thursday....Second verse, same as the first....sicky, sicky, no no knitty.....hey, 3:30pm isn't too early to go to bed, right?

Friday...Finally got some sleep and therefore got better and got some knitting done. I am about 1/3 of the way done on the sleeves on my CPH. These few lost knitting days have put me behind, but I am still hopeful to finish in my timeframe which is....

.....TWO WEEKS?!? Oh crap.....well, better get back to the knitting.....

P.S. If your week was bad too (which is has been for everyone I know) check out Shiboopi over at TurtleGirl's blog. I love me some Family Guy.....

Chuggin' along....

Not to thwart the Knitting Goddess again ('cause that would just be stupid), but I would like to share my appreciation about Her letting me to knit so much, so well lately.

Is She gone? Alright, down to business.

I got to finish the ribbing on my sleeves before I went to a Super Bowl party (i.e. starting imbibing fermented grains), at which point the knitting mojo was transferred to the Perpetual Harry Potter scarf. Yeah, sure.....I enjoy watching football, but if people are playing that I don't really care about, don't expect me not to knit. In the same turn, if I am going to drink, don't expect me to knit something complicated, like sleeve shaping.

My Harry Potter Scarf has been neglected recently (try about 6 months) and was recently picked back up for the Knit Flicks Night watching of 27 Dresses (awesome, BTW) and the Super Bowl - events where knitting was required that could be done without looking.

Okay, yes, I am able to knit without looking. I don't know why, but it freaks people out. I can sit there and watch a movie or talk to someone and not look at my knitting. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not knitting lace or anything remotely complicated. So far it just works on garter, stockinette, and on ribbing, sort of.

Am I the only one that does this? Am I a freak? Wait....don't answer that......

So, needless to say, the scarf gained another stripe and I actually could have gone farther, but I didn't think to bring the other color for the scarf.

Wouldn't have mattered anyway. The fourth quarter was just too exciting....

Get me out of this crazy thing!

Yeah, so that how I have felt the past....what.....good Lord, 2 weeks? I got sucked in for two weeks?!? That's just crazy.... For those of you not aware, here's what went down.

Last time, which was a Thursday, that I had begun the armholes, done the decreases, and went on to the straight knitting portion. (You see it coming, don't you?) Since I had a few free days off, I felt confident stating that I would finish that up during the weekend. I was just going to fly through that portion and have it done and ready for posting the next week, along with the sleeves half-knitted. (Can you here it?) You see, underlying these ASSumtions, here's what was in the subliminal messaging:

"SMITE ME ALL MIGHTY SMITER!!"*

Yeah, I got smacked upside the head by the Knitting Goddess. And I felt it too....right between the eyes, it was. First, I'm chuggin' along at Knit Night and I'm working on a cable row,

"Alright, slip off those three stitches (cause I'm being spiffy and not using a cable needle), knit the next three...wait, that last one is a purl.....Why do I only have five stitches in this cable.....where did the sixth one go?"

Where was that elusive sixth stitch? At the last cable crossing.....10 rows down. Yes, there were several expletives in the middle of Starbucks, why do you ask? I then spend the evening dropping the five stitches down ten rows, do the cable properly with all SIX stitches, then pick them back up ten rows.

Then I went and had a drink.

It was a rough time for CPH and I, but we trudged through it......until I began to pull out the measuring tape.

"Okay, I've got about 4.5" here and I need 6.5"....... Each 10-row repeat is about 2"....... so one more repeat should do it."

*SMACK*

Yeah, I got sucked into the mother of all knitting black holes. I just kept knitting and knitting and it wasn't getting ANY LONGER!!!! I finally put the knitting down, went and sacrificed a rubber chicken to the Knitting Goddess, begging for forgiveness for transgressions. In my more enlightened state of mind, I went back, knitted two rows and had reached my goal.

And I give you, the body of my Central Park Hoodie:

And yes, I immediately cast on both sleeves.

*This is a quote from one of my favorite movies of all time.....what, you think I'm gonna tell you if you don't know?!?