Lotus Mittens

So I've been quite the slacker on the blogging front, but that's nothing new. I decided in early August that I wanted to do some colorwork, and after a lot of flip-flopping and ravelry pattern searches, I decided on the Lotus Mittens. I had the perfect colors of yarn, too. The pattern calls for 2 colors, but I really like the purple and green together. Unfortunately, they didn't create enough contrast when together, so I needed a grey color. Luckily, I had them in my stash.

Grey: Tempted Fiesty Grrl in Lost
Green: Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Jade
Purple: Malabrigo Sock in Violeta Africana

I originally started with US2 dpns, but the mitten was looser than I'd like. So I started over with US1 dpns, and I like it so far. I added a Latvian Braid to the cuff (tutorial here), and I like that better than the cuff in the pattern.

(^that pic is actually from the US2 dpn edition, but it still looks the same)

Moving right along, I really love working on this. It's quite addictive. I'm tying in any floats longer than 4 sts, and so far that seems to be sufficient.

This is how it looks today. Things are going pretty slowly now that school has started. I'm lucky to get in 5 rows/week. At this rate, I will have a complete set of mittens by winter 2015 lol.

I think that I will end up skipping part of the pattern. It calls for 3 flowers, but one flower is halfway down my hand. I'm going to knit until I'm 1/2 through the 2nd flower, and then I'll decide if I'm going to skip to that portion of the 3rd flower or not.

I decided to make the background of the thumb green instead of purple. It's made the base of the thumb a little bit thicker because I had to wrap the green around at the start of every thumb row. I hope that that won't be a problem, but I won't know until I'm done with the first mitten.

Ravelry project page: Lotus Mittens

DFW Fiber Fest

Last weekend was my 6th year to attend the DFW Fiber Fest with 2 of my friends. We had a fantastic time, as always! The Yarn Harlot was the Friday night speaker, but unfortunately we didn't buy tickets because everyone's budgets were a little tight this year (hello, new road bike. lol.) This is what I came home with:

The skein on the left is Western Sky Knits Magnolia Luxe, in the London colorway. It's a fantastically soft merino/cashmere/silk blend. The other full skein is Gynx Yarn Power Sock, in the Maverick colorway. That yarn is just so beautiful. I went by her booth 2x before I bought it, and I stood there petting the skein for a good 5 mins each time. Those 2 little mini skeins are some kind of superwash merino blend-I bought them for the sock yarn blanket that I'll finish roughly around 2050. I also bought that adorable little project bag (I can't remember the shop name... The tag does have Erin something on it, though). I also bought the little scissors because the guy at the booth offered us free candy and I felt obligated to buy something. They work pretty well on yarn, and are scarily sharp.

As for current projects, I decided that I needed a sweater for interpreting. I'm in an ASL interpreter program, and we have to wear dark solid tops when interpreting. I had some leftover yarn from mom's Argonath, so I started a Pull Me Over. So far, it's going quite well. I'm almost done with the waist increases, and then I don't think that there is much left after that. I'm going to do cap sleeves.

I also decided to start a pair of socks for a friend. I started the Stitch Surfer socks because I think the construction is cute. So far, it's going well. I tried to start them on dpns, but I had to switch to 4 needles way too early, so I started over with 2 circs. (My body/mind has rejected magic loop. I.Just.Can't.Do.It.) So far, so good. I think they'll be very pretty. I'm going to try to make mirror-image socks.

Bad blogger!

As I stated on my running blog, I suck at blogging. I've given up on keeping track of everything I've knitted, which isn't much lately, btw. I have a full-time job, I'm marathon training, and I started an ASL interpreter program in August. My time is incredibly limited right now, but I love being busy. I start to go a little bit crazy if I'm not busy.

I made a second Cerus scarf. It's finished, but I don't have a finished pic posted on Rav (or on my phone). If I wait until I get home to post this just so I can take a pic of the finished one, I'll never finish this blog post lol.

Over the summer, I participated in a Christmas in July gift swap. I had big plans to buy a gift for my swap mate, but then I saw the pattern for the Bigger on the Inside. Of course, I didn't see it until mid-July, less than 2 weeks before the deadline. Being either an eternal optimist or flat-out delusional, I decided to use that for the gift. I ended up delivering it a month late. I think the recipient liked it though, because she's a huge Dr. Who fan. I modified the project a little bit and made it a scarf with some daleks in it.

Bigger on the Inside

I started a Carlina in June, but then I needed the needles for the Dr Who scarf. It's still sitting on my ottoman, in this exact stage. I'm devoting all of my scant knitting time to the next project, so I imagine poor little Carlina will stay there for a few more months. The yarn used is Malabrigo sock. Fabulous yarn, despite the ridiculous acrobatics you have to do just to wind a hank of any kind of Malabrigo into a skein.

Now for the big project. I'm knitting the Argonath for my Mom's Christmas present. Because of time constraints, I am way behind on it. The last time I calculated it, I had to knit something like 4.5 rows per day in order to finish on time. I'm counting on Christmas break to have a hope of finishing it before January. The yarn is Madelinetosh tosh sport in the Norway Spruce colorway. I'm about 3/4 finished with the second ball of yarn; I have 8 skeins total. You can see my lifeline about 4" from the top; you can guarantee that I'm always going to have at least one lifeline in this sucker. I don't have time for mistakes. I really need to put another one in soon.

This will probably be the extent of my knitting for the rest of the year. I'd love to finish Carlina, knit a few cardigans since I have to dress nicer for school, maybe make a few hats.... but none of that is going to happen because I am already cutting back on sleep. My marathon is Nov 24, and after that I won't be running much for a few weeks, so that alone will give me some more knitting time. The fall semester ends on Dec 16, so I will have about a week of nothing but knitting time (and netflix and hulu catch-up time). I think I'll take the week of Thanksgiving off from work, and maybe the week of Christmas as well. Priorities, ya'll.

Scarfing along

I started a new scarf! The Cerus scarf is a lengthwise linen stitch scarf (not to be confused with linen yarn lol). I'm knitting it with my only skein of Anothercraftygirl's strong sock yarn, in the Hideous Zippleback colorway. I originally started it on August 14, but I made a mistake and knit the same row twice after about 6 rows, thus giving the scarf a border.

I had resigned myself to living with the error and planned on doing the same thing on the other side, but I decided that the scarf was too short at 411 stitches, and frogged it. The length issue was probably just a convenient excuse to get rid of the mistake.

I casted on again on 8-28-12, this time casting on 655 stitches. It took me two times to get enough tail for my twisted long tail cast on. I thought I had at least 600 stitches after the first time, but nope. I had exactly 411, again. It took me well over an hour just to cast on an adequate number of stitches.

Here it is, as of last Wednesday:

I've probably knit 4 or 5 rows since then, but this colorway is very difficult to photograph. I really love this scarf!

I finished the color affection

I finally finished my color affection shawl. I can't believe that it took me 3 months to complete! That just shows how much my free time has diminished.

Pre-blocking:

Post-blocking:

A coworker's mother was diagnosed with aggressive Stage IV breast cancer back in March. As soon as I heard, I wanted to make her something. I wanted to make something different-a lot of people make chemo caps, and those are greatly needed. But I wanted to make her a shawl. Her favorite colors are purple and green. Because of the garter stitch, I felt that this shawl would mesh well with my current schedule (meaning I could multitask and watch tv or read while knitting it). I finally finished it last week. My coworker said her mom loved the shawl, and that it is perfect because she gets cold a lot. It made me really happy that this shawl is comforting her in what must be a very very difficult time.

The stats:
Yarn:
Grey-Madtosh tosh sock in Tern
Green-Madtosh tosh sock in Green with Envy
Purple-Tempted Good Grrl in Deviant Behavior

Needle: US 6 circs

Pattern: Color Affection

I'm also (slowly) knitting some baby leggs for our pregnant secretary. She's already gone on maternity leave due to preterm labor, but I'm going to mail them to her when I finish.

I also got the last Tempted Burlesque Club yarn shipment. I love it! It's Luxe Grrl.

I don't know what I'm going to do with it, besides petting it fondly.

Um, blanket Sunday on a Tuesday. Or something like that.

I think I mentioned on here that I'm working 2 jobs now (we're trying to pay off our debt so we can buy a house in the next few years). Working 70hrs/week doesn't leave me a whole lot of time for the blanket, unfortunately. I should be doing 2 squares per day; instead, I've done 2 since my last post. I'm still growing my mini skein stash though. I've managed to knit on other projects, but the blanket is now big enough that it isn't very portable.

I took a pic of the blanket before knitting the last square that I did. I don't have the most up-to-date photo, but I figure I should blog while I can, current pics or not. At the time, I was a whole 3 squares from the end of the row. Now, I have 2 left.

# done: 118
# left to go: 602 (I'm so far behind it's sad)
% finished: 16.4%

The mother of one of my coworkers was recently diagnosed with aggressive Stage IV breast cancer. I decided to make her a color affection shawl. Her favorite colors are purple and green, which I luckily already had in my stash. I had to go buy a skein of grey. I'm using 2 madtosh tosh sock skeins-the Green With Envy that I got in one of their clubs, and the skein of Tern that I had to buy. The purple is Tempted Deviant Behavior. Here is the yarn:

Have you ever had a yarn pick its own project? I've tried to use the Green With Envy on 2 other projects, neither of which worked out (socks and fingerless gloves). I really think it was waiting for this shawl. Here are some progress pics:

As a baby:

Finally growing some stripes:

Finally starting the purple:

I really love this shawl. I think I'll make one for my mom for her birthday. I'm not much of a shawl person-I don't get the joy out of knitting them that other knitters seem to experience. But I love this one a lot!

On an unrelated note, I went to a fantastic concert on March 11. The lineup was Kiros, Nine Lashes, Manafest, Thousand Foot Krutch, and Red. It was one of the best concerts I've ever been to! I'm going to subject you to pics just because. :)

Kiros: 

Nine Lashes: 

Manafest:

TFK:

TFK had a spinal column mic stand:

Red:

Nimroseita and me with Nine Lashes:

Manafest tried to make me look taller:

Me, sort of with Red:

Blanket Sunday-The Monday Edition

I haven't updated in a while, but that's because the blanket has sort of been neglected. I am really behind, but I've been busy, and I'm only going to get busier. I think I haven't really wanted to work on the blanket lately because I am on a strict yarn budget. Every other month most of the budget is taken up by the yarn club I'm in, so I only bought 3 minis this month. The lack of new colors to add makes me sad. That's my excuse for the past. My future excuse is this-I've started a part-time job in addition to my regular job. DH and I made a goal to get most if not all of our debt paid off this year, and so I took an extra job to help speed that along. We want to buy a house in 2014 if possible, so the debt needs to go away and we need to save for a down payment. I started my job on Saturday, and tonight is my only night off this week. Hopefully I can get a square or 2 done, but I certainly won't make my 2 squares a day minimum. I don't have any idea what I work Saturday, but I'm sure it'll be a full day.

But back to the blanket. Here she is, in all of her multi-colored glory:

I like the way it's turning out, although the overall color is a little too bright for my tastes. I should have been adding more black. Oh well. Maybe if I do a dark i-cord border, it'll make up for it.
Blanket Summary:
# of squares to go: 604 (116 done, but 56 squares behind schedule)
% complete: 16.1%

Here are the minis I got this month:

I'm going to be a stingy little trollop and not tell you where I got them so I can buy more of the rainbow color. Trollop has been reintroduced to my vocabulary thanks to a season 2 episode of Gilmore Girls. Gnome let me borrow all 7 or 8 seasons of the show. Good grief I'm easily distracted today.

Luckily, DH doesn't read my blog, so I can show you the socks that I'm knitting for our "first" anniversary. If you know me, you won't be surprised to know that I'm easily amused. We got married on 2-29-08, so this is technically our first anniversary. We're planning a big 10 year bash in 2048. But back to the socks.

DH, who hasn't read an entire book since the mid-90s, read all 7 Harry Potter books in less than a month. That thrills me to no end! So I picked Snape's Stockings as the pattern for his anniversary socks. I'm sort of on a time crunch, and DH likes ankle socks anyway, so I'm going straight from the ribbing to the heel flaps. I hope I can get them finished in a week. I really should have picked a toe-up pattern so I could do the leg length based on how much time I have left to knit, but I couldn't find any HP toe-up patterns that I liked. The yarn is Tempted Good Grrl in Mocha. I've had that skein for at least 2 years, and procrastinated on making DH more socks. The last (and only) pair he's gotten from me was the Diamond Gansey socks in 2009.

Finally, I frogged the geodesic cardigan that I started almost 2 years ago. I wasn't ever going to finish it anyway. I'll find something else to do with the yarn (Tempted Lacy Grrl). Maybe I'll make another clapotis.

Even-numbered years are always better

I am so glad that 2011 is over. I have a thing for even numbers, so I think 2012 will be better just because it's an even year. 2011 had a few bright spots, but overall I think it sucked and I'm ready for a new year.  Here's a few reasons why 2012 will be better:

• For starters, I was married on Feb 29, 2008, so I finally get to have my "first" anniversary.
• Secondly, I am so excited for the Red/TFK/Nine Lashes concert in Tulsa on March 11 that I can hardly stand it.
• My 10 yr HS reunion is this year. I'm not so sure that's a good thing, but hey. I'm gainfully employed, practice regular hygiene, don't have to worry about multiple baby daddies, and I'm sober. I've also never been arrested. That's more than several from my class of 24 people can say.
• It's an Olympic Year. Helllllooooo, Ravelympics and Team Sprout (the 2012 ravelympics group hasn't been made yet, so I linked the 2010 group)

I didn't quite meet my 2011 FO goal (22 in 2011). I came fairly close with 18 FOs though.  My 2012 goal is 24 FOs and to finish the sock yarn blanket. I'll also need to figure out something for a Ravelympics goal (beyond heading a team and keeping my sanity lol). I didn't meet my 2011 reading goal of 88 books either, although I came dangerously close to getting halfway there (I finished 42). If it weren't for the 3 months that I didn't knit or read anything, I would have certainly surpassed the knitting goal and could have met the reading goal. I think my reading goal for 2012 will be 60. I know I can do 48, so I'll make my goal 60 for a challenge and hope I make it. I made badges:

I started some fantastic stripey socks this week. I've always heard that vanilla socks made out of self-striping yarn are addictive, and it's true. I decided to challenge myself just a little bit and do my first afterthought heels as well as doing 2 at a time on 2 circs. So far, so good. The socks are approximately 2 stitches off from each other, color-wise.

I used Wendyknits' toe-up slipstitch heel pattern just to know how much to increase to (58 sts), but I'm using the Knitgirllls' afterthought heel tutorial. I'm using (2) ~24" US2 circulars. The yarn is String Theory Continuum in Coronal Mass Ejection. Here's the link to my ravelry project page.

And finally, blanket Sunday. All of the ends that can be are woven in. So far, I am slightly ahead of schedule. I started it on Dec 5, so I needed to make 52 squares in Dec in order to finish within a year. I've finished 55 squares as of 11pm CST last night.

I couldn't get Jake and Sadie to stay out of the picture, so I resorted to making funny squawking sounds so that they'd at least look cute for me.

# of squares done: 55
% complete: 7.6%

Merry Christmas!

I finally finished my Christmas knitting yesterday while in the car on the way to the inlaw's. The last gift finished was a cowl for Mom, and we didn't get to her house until this morning. The fact that I finished her gift yesterday was fantastic, especially since I've had to finish gifts in front of her on the actual holiday more than once.

I finished DH's Jacques Cousteau hat last Tuesday. I worked on the majority of it in front of him, and he was still surprised when I plopped it on his head shortly after weaving in the ends. He had forgotten that I said I'd knit him a hat, and so I won Christmas this year.

Pattern: Jacques Cousteau Hat
Yarn: Cascade 220 in 9465
Needles: US7
Rav Project Page

Sorry about the mess on the island behind DH. I've been an adult for 10 years, but I can't figure out if I'm supposed to keep every bill statement that comes in the mail or not. Since everything is digital now, I suppose I can just shred them. But I'm still scared that something bad will happen if I get rid of them, like somehow I won't have proof that I paid the bill or something. I'm weird like that. So I stack them on the island and pretend they don't exist. Moving on.

I finished the second of the 54 hats last week around Sunday or Monday. The second looked the same as the first and both fit the girls. They seemed to like them, so that's good. Both hats together took less than a full skein of Malabrigo Worsted.

Like I said earlier, I finished Mom's Stacked Eyelet Cowl in the car yesterday. Mom wanted a "manly" color since she's pretty much a tomboy, so I picked Malabrigo Silky Merino in Smoke. She liked it as well, and it fit.

Pattern: Stacked Eyelet Cowl
Yarn: Malabrigo Silky Merino in Smoke
Needles: US7
Rav Project Page

I came across the most adorable little pattern on Friday night for a mini snowman. I made one in the car on the way to the IL's, although I had to finish it at their house. I think it's so stinking cute that I almost can't stand it. When I make the next one, I'm going to make sure to make the arms lower so that they won't be covered by the scarf.

Pattern: Minimochi Snowman
Yarns: Lang Jawoll in White, Tempted Good Grrl in Onyx, and Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Pool
Needles: US1 (I thought I was going to snap them several times)
Rav Project Page

I started the Palouse Mitts back in October during a bout of startitis. I've completely lost interest in them. I'm not sure why though. They're cute and everything, and I haven't had any problems with the pattern. Could it be the yarn? I think this is the third time I've tried to use it-it's Madtosh in Green With Envy. I guess I'll wait to frog them and see if I can get motivated again to look at them.

Speaking of frogging, I finally killed the La Digitessa Socks today. I'd lost my place when I accidentally deleted my stitch counter app, and if I remember correctly, I don't think the row counter jived with where it looked like I was anyway. And they didn't fit.

I had a bit of stash enhancement this week. I got several minis, but I don't want to try to show you all of them and explain what they are lol. I also got my Tempted Burlesque package. This is the debut of the Feisty Grrl line (100% SW Merino). The colorway is Blue Blood. I really like it, but I'm not sure what I'll make with it.

It's finally time for the blanket. I've managed to knit 8 squares since yesterday, so I averaged 1 square per day for the week. Since it'll require 720 squares if I do the size I've planned, I need to do at least 2 per day to finish it within a year. I'd like to have it done in 6 months or so, so I need 4 squares per day. Now that Christmas knitting is done, I'll have more time to devote to it. I measured it on the floor today, and it is 55" across, so it is 7" longer than intended (1st square=2", so 24 squares should equal 48"). I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't make it as I've planned. I'm going to need to buy a lot of minis, that's for sure.

# of squares done: 38
% complete: 5%

Christmas is coming, whether I like it or not.

For Christmas this year, I only had to knit 5 items: 2 Stacked Eyelet Cowls, 2 "54" hats, and 1 Jacques Cousteau hat. Christmas is a week away, and I have finished 3 of the 5 (1 cowl & both "54" hats). That stinking blanket sucked away my desire to knit on anything else. However, I have all week to finish the Jacques Cousteau hat for DH (I'm approximately 75% done with it), I'm off on Friday (and maybe half of Thursday), and I have a 4 hour drive to the IL's on Saturday as well as all day Saturday to knit the cowl for Mom. I'm not too incredibly worried.

I just finished the second of the 2 hats for my friend's daughters. I'm a little concerned about them fitting, but they both fit on my head, so I think it'll be ok.

Pattern: "54"
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Gerino
Needles: US9 dpns
Rav project page

I think I'm going to start a thing called Blanket Sunday. It'll be an easy way for me to watch my progress on the blanket. I doubt I'll post every Sunday, but hopefully I can be somewhat regular with it. Since my first blog about the blanket was last Sunday, I'll count that as the first installment. Here's the blanket as of yesterday (haven't worked on it since then):

# of squares done: 30
% complete: 4%

The blanket was supposed to be 4 feet wide by 5 feet long. The first square was 2" wide (in square orientation), so 24 squares should be 48". However, the blanket is wider than I am tall (I'm 4'11"). I haven't actually measured it on the floor, so maybe the weight of the squares makes it stretch enough to make it longer? Either way, this blanket is going to be huge. H-U-G-E.