Ravelympics: Day 15

Well, I'm pretty far behind schedule. This picture is yesterday's progress (day 15). I obviously haven't finished the sleeves, and they're taking much longer than I thought they would. But, it is only 4:30ish, so there's still time. Who knows if I'll get done? I don't.

Being the captain of Team Sprout has taught me some lessons on leadership. I've learned that you can do your best and still get complaints and nasty comments. I've tried not to take it to heart, but it's easier said than done. I guess all that matters is that I tried my best to make it fun for the team members, and if they aren't happy, it isn't entirely my fault.

I'm going back to knitting. I've got a lot to do.

Ravelympics: Day 14

Ok, here's the progress from Thursday. I'm about a quarter done with the sleeves. I'm behind my schedule, but I still have wiggle room. :)

Ravelympics: Day 13

It hasn't happened very often during the Ravelympics that I've posted the current day's progress. Most times I post my progress from the previous day. However, I was so freaking excited that I finished the right front and started the sleeves that I had to share. Look:

I don't know how long the sleeves will take me, but I seriously doubt I'll finish them tomorrow. I guess Friday is a more likely goal. That'll just leave the ribbing, weaving in the gazillion ends, and seaming. I really really want to be done before Sunday because it'll be my 2nd wedding anniversary (I can hardly believe it's already been 2 years!).

So, there you have it, I'm making progress.

Ravelympics: Day 12

Ok, I'm a little behind schedule already, but I have a bit of wiggle room thanks to Friday being free at work. I'm about 3/4 done with the right front.

Ravelympics: Day 11

After a minor snafu/issue/heart-stopping problem at the top of the left front, I finished it. I started the right front. Now, the right front gave me a little bit of trouble as well. You only knit part of the chart at the beginning, and then increase every other row until there are enough stitches. The pattern doesn't mention that you should start at the END of the chart, as in knitting the last 10 stitches of the chart first. I think I'm right. I hope so anyway-there's no time to fix it if I'm wrong.

On a (somewhat) hilarious side-note, I realized that I have been reading the charts incorrectly. Luckily, it only matters on the berry stitch section. The stitches are opposite, so that you K3tog on the first 3 stitches on one row and on the last 3 on the opposite row. I read every row right to left, rather than reading the even rows as left to right. Thankfully, the rows are opposites, so I'm just making a mirror image. That's why I could tell where I'd gone down to correct my error.

ETA: Scratch that. I'm not sure I read it wrong. Who knows. Whatevs. lol.

In order to finish on time, I've made a schedule. I'm not sure it's a realistic one, but in order to finish on time, I must adhere to it or do better.

Tues: Finish the right front, start the sleeves (knitting them 2 at a time)

Wed: Sleeves

Thurs: Sleeves/Ribbing

Fri: Ribbing

Sat/Sun: finishing, etc.

Thank god that my bosses will all be gone on Friday. Perhaps I can make up some ground then.

Ravelympics: Day 10

I made wonderful progress on the left front. :)

I think I'm running out of stuff to say beyond what the progress was. I still have the right front, 2 sleeves, and the ribbing to finish. I'm not sure it's possible to finish on time, but we'll see. The tinking of the middle section may have done me in.

Ravelympics: Day 9

OMG! I finalllllllyyyyy finished the back. FINALLY. As you can imagine, I did a happy dance around the living room.Then I started the left front section. I got caught up in the thrill of knitting something other than the back, and stayed up until 4am knitting it (ok, season 10 of MASH might have helped a bit too).
::happy dance::

Ravelympics: Day 8

Ok, here's the progress as of Friday night. I was thoroughly stuck in the black hole that was the armhole section of the back. No matter how many times I measured, it wasn't yet 8".
I'm hurrying to get this posted before midnight because I'm nearly done with day 9's progress lol. I'll post that (exciting) picture tomorrow.

Ravelympics: Day 7

I'm finished the decreases for the armholes and now I'm just knitting until the armhole is 8.something inches long. I'm trying super hard to keep my momentum and enthusiasm, but it's getting harder and harder. I need to channel Dory from Finding Nemo and just keep knitting, just keep knitting. I'd like to finish the back really soon. I think that the two front pieces won't be too bad since the front is curved. The sleeves may take a bit. Finally, there's an insanely long ribbing border to do. Hopefully I can finish on time.

Ravelympics: Day 6

Doing something you didn't think you could do is a great feeling. I finished fixing my error in the middle section of the back of the cardigan today. I nearly danced around the apartment, and DH literally came home to me yelling excitedly at the dogs that I had done it. I can still see that something isn't quite right from where I ripped it down, but that's much better than an incredibly obvious ridge in the middle. Here is my post-repair celebratory picture:

I trudged on (after posting my victory on both plurk and ravelry, and possibly texting a picture to several friends), and I am now halfway done with the armhole decreases. I expect to be finished with the armholes tomorrow. I'm not sure how much is left of the back after that, but it can't be too much. Today's ending progress pic:

Ravelympics: Days 4 & 5, a two-for-one edition with a lesson learned

Day 4

I made a whole lot of progress, and was pretty darn pleased with myself, until I noticed a small problem. Do you see it? I got off on the berry stitch section in the middle.

I originally caught the mistake about 7 rows after I started it, and figured out what had gone wrong. I corrected the problem, and then decided that I could live with the mistake. After all, I didn't have time to waste the time required to fix it, right? I'm knitting a freaking cardigan in 17 days. Time is valuable. This is supposed to be a challenge, and I would find it challenging to leave the mistake there. So, I left it and knitted on for about 20 more rows.

Day 5

The error mocked me all night long. I even dreamt about it (I wish I was kidding). Finally, after a non-knitter pointed out the mistake and asked if that "ridge" was supposed to be there, I decided that I couldn't ignore it. Cue me dropping down 32 rows to get down to the beginning of the error. I'm kind of proud of myself for actually doing it. Now I just have to get back up to the top. It's taking a long time, longer than knitting the pattern takes. If only I had recognized that I would not be able to live with the mistake and had corrected it when I only had 7 rows to fix.

So that's where I am. I'm going to continue to make my way back up to the top. I'll take a picture before bed, but it won't look much different than the picture above.

Ravelympics: Day 3

I doubt I'll ever post the current day's project pic because I take the picture right before I collapse into bed. I was up until 2:30am, which is why I got a late start today. Anywhoo, here's the progress as of last night on the back of my blackberry cabled cardigan. I just started the bust increases.

Ravelympics: Day 2's progress

Here's my progress after yesterday's knitting:

Not too shabby, right? I hope to make a lot of progress over the 3-day weekend in order to make up for not being able to knit at work. I'm almost done with the waist decreases; only 2 more to go.

Let the games begin!

We had our cast-on party for the Ravelympics last night! I was so sleep-deprived and jacked up on mtn dew that the whole party was kind of a blur. I didn't get any pictures, but I've been promised some. I'll post them when I get them.

I've decided that I'm going to post a project picture every day so that I can do one of those speedy slideshow thingys that'll show my project growing. I was too incoherent to take a pic last night, so this is a pic of last night's progress before I started knitting today. I will post another one tonight. I ended up casting on 2.5 times last night-I made it to the second row on the first try before realizing there was a problem (which I think might not have been a problem, but that's another story). On the second time, I didn't leave enough tail to cast on. The third was the charm and is in the pic below.

I'm off to knit my little heart out until it's time to go to Muriel's house for more knitting.

My official excuse: I've been busy

I've been really busy lately (work=ick), so that's my official excuse for not blogging as frequently as I should. To make up for it, I bring you some progress pictures and some yarn p0rn.

My childhood best friend's birthday is coming up in late March, and she loves LOTR. I decided to make her a pair of Aragorn socks (rav link) using Tempted's Good Grrl in Passion Fruit.

Here's an updated picture of my Mystic Light Shawl. I'm into chart 2 I think. It's been at least 2 weeks since I've knit on it, so I'm not sure where I'm at.

My central park hoodie is closer to being finished. I finished the second button band today, and I still need to seam the sleeves on, find some buttons, sew them on, and crochet quick button loops on the button band. Then I'll be done. Sandy, if you're reading this, be happy.

Now for the yarn pictures. I'm doing the Blackberry Cabled Cardigan (rav link) for the Ravelympics (which starts Friday, btw), and I'm using Knitpicks Swish DK in Garnet Heather.

Shhh, DH doesn't know about this particular purchase. I bought my yarn for Stilwell. It is Jo Sharp Silkroad Tweed. The blue will be the main color and the white will be the contrasting color. The pattern for Stilwell won't be available until April 2010, so it won't be started for a while.

Finally, Tempted did a special dye job for a Myrtle Cardigan KAL (rav link). Here's my yarn! It's good grrl in an unnamed color (I'll update if she gives me a name for it).

I've got tons to do this week. I haven't swatched for my Ravelympics project yet, so that's a must do. I'm normally awful about gauge swatches, but this time I'll only have 17 days to finish it. Confession: I don't think I'll be successful. I'll still give it a good amount of effort though. All other projects will stop from Feb. 12 to Feb 28.

Since the ravelympics start on Friday and I'm the captain of Team Sprout, I imagine there will be quite a few questions. I wonder if I'll actually be able to cast on at the cast on party on Friday night.

I also need to finish the CPH (maybe not buttons, but I'll at least seam the arms on), make progress on the 3 pairs of socks I have OTN, and knock out a few rows of the mystic light shawl. Oh, and I suppose I'll go to work too. Lol.