A Sticky Situation

With the Olympics going on, everyone is off doing their Olympic knitting. I am super impressed with what people have been able to accomplish since the beginning of the games and what they have learned in the process. I am not officially participating, but I am in the spirit of competition. I officially admit, I didn't cast on with the torch-lighting, nor will I finish by the time it is extinguished. But I am doing a project that challenges me and has given me new skills to add to my arsenal.

Behold the WiP.........aided by the decorative pine cone.

I can't believe how far I have gotten in a week. This thing is breezing by and it is so much freakin' fun to knit. (Yes, I know I am calling attention to myself and the knitting gods are going to smack me for it, but whatever.) I am about 12 rows into the pattern and have begun the waist shaping. I have taken the suggestion of spit-splicing the ends together for this portion and have found it very nice, even though I got even more weird looks in the employee dining room on my break. A word to the wise though: DO NOT spit-splice if you have been eating Jolly Ranchers. It does not make for happy knitting. Trust me.

I am glad that I didn't just jump into this project without having had some fair isle experience. When I was making my mittens, I came across several people telling me to hold my yarns several different ways. I have determined, figure it out for yourself. Because whatever works best for you is going to give you the best chance at keeping even tension, and that is even more important on this project. Start with something small, get used to your fair isle technique, then jump on in!

Other things that have helped:What I have found very helpful with this project is my KnitPicks pattern holder (keeps everything together), my rigged, clipable row counter (doesn't get lost), a blown-up copy of the color chart ('cause I'm blind), a copy of the pattern ('cause I scribble on stuff), and a row-by-row listing of the decreases ('cause I get distracted....SQUIRREL!!).

Lack of Water Leads to Knitting

Before I went to work yesterday I found a flyer hanging on the door to our apartment that said they were rerouting pipes from the hot water boiler and, long story short, we would not have any water from 9am-5pm on Tuesday. Now, Tuesday is my first day off from work and that is usually when I do all of my chores, like laundry. No water means no laundry.

Oh darn....that means I'm going to have to knit. Can't tell you how sad I am that I have to knit instead of doing laundry.

I finally finished all the planning and have gotten all of my materials together so I decided today would be a good day to cast on my Ivy League Vest. I fully concede that I ripped the color choices from the Turtlegirl and her lovely vest. She even helped me get some of the colors that have been discontinued. Hers is just too pretty....

....I must have it.

All Better

I need to learn to not post right when I get home from work....scary things happen.....I had a little rant there.

But the problem was still there never the less. This is what it originally looked like:
Yeah...that looks stupid. So I dropped the stitches all the way back to the second buttonhole and redid them. And then I had a glass of wine...



...or seven. But it looks much better now, so it was worth it. The stitches are still a little wonky, but I'm hoping it will work out when I block it. Just the sleeve left to go and it will be good.

On a separate note, I thought I'd show you Smokey helping me with laundry. He really likes laundry day.

What do you mean you have to fold the sheets now?

Seriously, don't even try it.

I'm annoyed....

...but I can't tell who's fault it resides. Probably mine...but...yeah...

I "finished" the body portion of the FBS and started on the sleeves. I ran some crafty errands, including going to the LYS for some needles for my Ivy League Vest (and, surprisingly, that is all I bought, I promise). I also shopped around for some buttons for said FBS. I made three button holes 'cause that's what everyone else did and it looked cute and I'm just that kinda gal.

So I being popping buttons on, seeing what they look like, which ones fit, etc. etc. Side note: I hate button shopping....just not my thing. That's when I really start looking at the sweater and the button holes look spaced really stupid. Lemme explain without a picture (cause it's dark).

Imagine a sweater that would have five evenly-spaced buttons. Now removed the bottom two. That's what it looks like. Right now, I'm feeling like throwing it in the corner yelling "This is stupid!" and going off and pouting like a three year old.

This is what I know:
1. I did use worsted-weight yarn and US8 as opposed to DK yarn and needle recommended. I concede that.

2. All other instructions were followed to the best of my knowledge. At first I thought I screwed up at "knit 8 ridges" and doing crazy math in my head to where that was 16 rows and therefore 16 ridges, but this is not the case. I DID do it correctly.

3. I did knit the body 5", as instructed. Granted, with the yarn/needle change, this may be an issue, but from looking at other projects, I seem to have done about the same amount of repeats.

4. I am 100% insane. I think this also important because I think the yarn keeps changing color on me.

I'm hoping I can sleep on it and the knitting gnomes will have fixed my problem. I'm trying not to think about dropping the buttonhole stitches all the way back to the beginning-ish and redoing them, or, god forbid, rip the entire thing out. Idk....opinions?

I'm gonna go find some wine....

The Sky is Falling....

....or that's what it sounds like. Remember the winter storm I told you about last time? Well, everything has calmed down and has begun to melt. What happens when it just barely warms up and things barely start to melt?

Wicked icicles.These are really, really cool.....until they start falling and scaring the crap out of you.

Look! Knitting!My first Februrary Baby Sweater. Seems everyone I know is having babies right now. My family had a large census increase over the holidays. I think we grew by three.... So I will hopefully be knitting some things for them for their first birthdays, seeing as I wasn't in the knitting groove before they were born.

I would have to say that my new job has really helped with my knitting groove. See, I am very, very lucky. To avoid traffic implications, I leave early enough for work that I am usually there 30 minutes early. Bring out the knitting. Then, I get 3-30 minute breaks....on the clock. Use one to eat, that's another hour of knitting time, which is actually paid! This new job has given me about an hour and a half of knitting time that "can't" be interrupted or used for something else.

Initially, I was using up stash and stocking up on baby hats and these new baby booties that use up extra sock yarn. These getting me by until I could get a project in mind....and that project is the Ivy League Vest. Yep, I'm just going to jump in....eventually. Some of the yarn has gone on a sight-seeing trip, but it called and said it would be home soon. When I ordered the yarn I could actually order, I snuck in some KnitPick Shine Worsted and figured I could do a FBS in the meantime. I just attached the second of three skeins I got so I'm hoping there will be enough for a February Baby hat.

The Joys of Wool

Okay, so it's 1:45am Saturday morning. I got home from work a little while ago after driving through a "crazy winter ice storm", or so they say. I say, "Meh". But I had a wonderful knitting epiphany and I wanted to share my joy with you.

Wool is wonderful.

I know some of you know this already, but you must remember when you first realized you loved wool too.

This winter ice/snow storm started last night, practically shutting everything down in the state. By the time I needed to drive to work, there was about 5 inches of snow (plus some ice underneath) on my car. It took me about 20 minutes to sweep it away and chip at the ice, trying to free my wipers and all that jazz.

But that's not the part we are here to talk about. When I was finally done, I got into my car and had my epiphany. You see, I had on my nice, newly-knitted mittens. The pretty red and gray ones. The ones made of wool. You know what I noticed?

My hands weren't cold.

Now, this seems like a simple thing, but after pawing through snow and ice and your gloves being wet, you expect your hands to be cold. But not if they are made of wool. They are just so nicely insulating and just wicked the water away to some mystical place where it wouldn't bother me.

I love wool.

P.S. I rescind my opinion about my mittens, as mittens. They felted and shrunk a tad during this incident and are now marvelous! Just thought you should know.

Actual FOs!!

The business portion of today's blog:

Or....there was going to be stuff....but having technical difficulties.

So we are going to do this the "not as pretty" way.Pattern: Hannah Hat (formerly of MagKnits)
Yarn: Cascade 220 Quattro in #9432 (held double) less than a skein
Needles: US 10
Adjustments: I keep my bun/ponytail down lower, so I moved the hole down and added some stst rows to put it nicely all the way down on my ears. Specifically,
"Rows 16-23: Work in stockinette." *added 4 more rows, started knitting in the round at this point, add 4 more rows of stst.* I also added a super cool pompom on the top. Cause ever hat needs a pompom.

I absolutely LOVE this hat. I always have my hair pulled back and most hats just weren't made for that. I don't have an exact amount of yarn that I used, but it was probably about 1/2 a skein. Super quick to knit and nice and cozy. BTW, this yarn makes the coolest pompoms.

Pattern: Manly Mitts from Knitty
Yarn: Paton's Classic Merino in Dark Gray Mix and Bright Red
Needles: US4 and US6
Size: Medium

Still figuring out if I'm a mitten person, but they sure have been keeping my hands cozy. They are a little long, but I'm too lazy to rip them down. It says to knit to the top of your ring finger before starting decreases, but I would start before that, like maybe knitting to where your fingernail starts on your ring finger. I changed the cuffs to be different....makes like interesting.

KITTEN!!!!

This is Smokey, The Boy's kitten. Yes, I am living with a cat and I haven't exploded. I have always been very allergic to cats, but, Thank God, not this one. We get along nicely, snuggling up with me when I read, and he mostly stays outta my knitting bag....as long as I don't leave it on the couch.

**I think things have changed since I last did this. For some reason, I can't post pictures from my flickr account, at least not the way I used to. Any help on how to post pictures from flickr into the ol' blog would be greatly appreciated.

Really? REALLY? /facepalm

Okay...so now I've only been back into knitting for like a month now and I'm already annoyed. But I have to tell you the funny part of the story first.

While researching my new project some more, I basically kept looking through all the Ivy League Vests on Ravlery. Like everyday. That helped me to decide that's the one I wanted to do. But there were so many color choices and I have never been able to pick colors that go together, so I figured I would find a color scheme I liked and steal it....urm, I mean, build upon it.

I need help deciding and who's opinion is readily available?

Me: I need your opinion on some knitting.
The Boy: Okay...
Me: I'm trying to decide which color I want to go with for this sweater. Which of these two do you like more?
The Boy: *contemplates while we switch back and forth between the two* I like that one more.
Me: Okay....I like that one too...
The Boy: It's more For The Horde....
Me: I'm sorry...*starts giggling*...what was that?
The Boy: Well, one is more Horde colors....the other is Alliance.
Me: *Starts laughing uncontrollably*

'Cause that's how we roll. Sidenote: Yes, we both play WoW. He's Horde and I'm Alliance. Every relationship has it's complications.

I finally get everything together and sit down to order the yarn. The Twig and Fog color of KP Palette are discontinued and the white is unavailable until the end of March, supposedly.

Therefore, I'm putting out a shout-out that if anyone has some of either the Twig or Fog color and can tell me which color they most closely resemble. I will also be bugging the turtlegirl goddess to see if she can tell me.

Edit: Manda makes an excellent point. Being away from the fiber world for so long, I had forgotten how gigantically useful the Rav is......

What to do....what to do....

Since I have gotten back into knitting again (and I find it safe to say I'm officially back in, considering what I knitted this week*), I am now at an impasse at what to knit. I mean we can always do a quickie hat or scarf or mittens, but I am looking for something more substantial....like a sweater.

Yeah, I know.

I've been getting back on ravelry and started looking though my ancient queue, looking at all of those things I liked back then. Guess what....I still like them. So...I have a decision to make and, since I can now only communicate with knitting peeps online, I need some help with what to knit now. And I'm not going to be helpful about it.

Project #1: "Plain" Oatmeal Sweater.
Yeah, that's not helpful, I know, but hear me out. I have some oatmeal-colored wool, already in the stash, that I have wanted to make into a sweater for a long time. I found the sweater I wanted to make in Interweave. It's marked in the magazine. But do I currently have the magazine? No. Still in the moving process, okay? But it's only of those good, simple sweaters.

Pros: Already have the yarn and pattern....theoretically.
Cons: Worried it would be too plain and not keep my interest.

Project #2: Ivy League Vest
I have wanted to make this ever since I saw it in the magazine and even more when I saw turtlegirl's vest. It would definately be an endeavor, but that's kinda what I want. Plus, I just finished some fair-isle mittens and I'm still kinda feeling that. But here's the catch: I would need to buy the yarn. Granted, it would only put me back like $15 (using KP Pallette), but there's is definately something to be said for using something from my VAST stash of yarn.

Pros: Very attention-grabbing....would learn how to steek.
Cons: Would have to but even more yarn....would have to steek.....eek!

I also have another sweaters worth of yarn (a nice wine color) that was going to be another CPH, but I'm thinking of doing one of the other 5 million cardis I have queued up. Something like Mariah, Cabled Cardigan, or Mr. Greenjeans.

Need opinions!!

*I finished a pair of Manly Mitts and a Hannah Hat, but trying to find the cord for the camera. Hopefully, will post soon.

One more time....with feeling...

Ok…so here we go for another attempt. But I’m really going to try and make it stick this time!

Yes, I have been gone for over a year. Yes, I have missed ya’ll. Yes, a lot has happened since we last spoke. If you are here because I popped up on your Bloglines or you’re cycling through your bookmarks, I applaud your confidence that I would return.

My return to the blog will have to be broken into several posts because I just can’t imagine anyone that would want to know that much about my life that they would read page after page. So…we’ll do it in small doses.

First off, I moved to Oklahoma and moved in with my parents for a while. The move got me a promotion and helped me to save a bit of money. However, this past Christmas was my last in retail, but more on that later. For those Chickies who are still watching, I have a surprise for you and it’s more important than any knitting I could show you. Not only did I get a promotion at my new store, I found something much, much better.

I found a boy.

Yes, he’s cute, isn’t he? He worked at the same store I did and we hit it off almost immediately. We’ve been together almost a year at this point and have begun to move in together. He did not run away from the massive amounts of yarn. Always a plus.

But one of the biggest was this conversation. One of the things we did when we first started dating was watch Firefly. I had never seen it, but had always wanted to. We hit the episode of “The Jayne Hat”. Firefly knitters know which ones I mean. Short and sweet, Jayne (played by Adam Baldwin) gets a hat in the mail that his mom made. The others don’t think much of the style, but he likes it and proudly wears it because his mom made it. I then tell Sean about the big popularity of the Jayne Hat in the knitter circle.

Me: Yeah, I have always thought about making me one.

Boy: Is it hard to do? Do you think you could make me one?

Me: If I made you that, you would totally not wear it in public.

Boy: I would totally wear that hat every day if you made it for me.

Yeah, I know. It’s what he got for Christmas and, true to his word, he wears it whenever he goes outside.

On to the knitting…I kinda got into a knitting funk for a while and didn’t knit much, which I think is a big reason I didn’t blog this past year. But I did knit some. I did another (and hopefully last) Christmas stocking. Still trying to find the picture I took of that one. Knit the Jayne hat for The Boy. And I have been working on a pair of mittens for myself. And that’s it. Seriously.

But I now have a new job, working at a casino. I work in the blackjack pit, basically being the pit boss’ lackey. It's easy work for more money, so you can't beat that. Plus, it gives me quite a bit of knitting time.

Hope everyone is doing well and I hope to be here much more often!