And even more progress...

Button band and button holes!!! Yeah! Tomorrow night, sleeve #1!

Well, this tangled mess, is the beginning of Eunny Jang's Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I'm using Elsbeth Lavold's Silky Wool.
I"m probably going to make a few modifications. I think I'm going to do just about an inch to 2 inches of ribbing at the bottom, because I don't think the 4 or so will be that flattering on me, but we'll see.

I'm still working on my neice's cardigan. Tonight I sewed two shoulders and wove in some ends. Tomorrow...Button bands on the front. I've given myself a carrot in order to help get my neice's cardigan finished, because I definitely hate to sew seams.
That's some Brooks Farm Duet on top of my TV. I have 2 skeins of it to make myself a Clapotis for me that I can start when I finish my neice's cardigan. It's there to keep me motivated.

Another day...another FO

Second version of my made up pattern for baby mitts for my nephew. I'm totally excited about the way they turned out.
I'm also going to knit an i-cord connector for the two of them so when he's wearing them and flailing his arms around, they don't get lost. Yeah! Now, I feel ready to tackle mittens again for my neice.

It was a cold and mostly rainy day...

and I knitted. It was wonderfully relaxing after a very busy week at work and a work party on Friday night. So, first off....
My Trekking socks are finished!!!! Yippeee. I totally love them! It's Trekking XXL 100 and I just did a 3x1 rib on the main body of the sock and then a 1x1 rib on the cuff. Now, I can get started on the Rainbow sock!!!

If a totally finished object wasn't enough, I finished sleeve number 2 for my neice's cardigan.
And now all I have to do is put it all together.
Hurrah! Now all I have to do is put it together.

Woo Hoo!!! Got a package today from Carmen with the yarn to finish the cardigan for my neice and look what else she got me!
Look what else she got me!!! Isn't that the coolest t-shirt!!! And a shoe magnet too. Thank you! THank you! Thank you!! I immediately began working on the sleeve again. I'm down to 4 repeats if the stripe pattern on the sleeve. I'll probably get to the assembly part this weekend and then finish the next weekend. Woo Hoo!

I'm still working on my Trekking socks. I turned the heel on the second one.
Now that I have the rainbow sock yarn, I want to make the rainbow socks, so I must finish this pair. I absolutely love this Trekking.

A finished object!! Yeah! The Candy Cane hat from Itty Bitty Hats. I think it looks more like a hat for an elf.
This is the one for my neice and I'm going to make a matching one for my nephew and hopefully I can get a picture of them both together in them. Just needs the ends woven in and a pompom.

I finally rescued mjy yarn from the apartment building office. They close at 6pm on week nights and 5pm on Friday. UGHHHH!!!! I'd like those hours
Some Debbie Bliss Cathay, Fleece Artist yarn and Opal sock yarn.
I love the rainbow strip in this. I'm thinking I might make the Rainbow socks with these. Now, I have to finish one of the two pairs I have on the needles so I can start new socks.

Oh No!

Note, the point at which I officially ran out of the dark pink yarn. 6 repeats from the end. I think I'll make it with the purple, but it's going to be a close call with the pink. I ordered extra from Carmen anyway because I knew if I didn't, I'd definitely run out.

I ran errands this morning and then spent some time driving around town and seeing what's around. I've been going to just the places I need to go. Target. The grocery store, etc. and hadn't spent much time just driving around. So, I did that for awhile today. Didn't find anything earth shattering...except a Dunkin Donuts. Yum!

Back on sleeve island...

I started off sleeve 2 for my neice's cardigan.
I'm going to knit until I run out of yarn or until new yarn from Carmen (my savior!) arrives.

The knitting ADD continues and 9 projects wasn't enough, so I started the Candy Cane hat from Itty-Bitty Hats.

I'm using the Valley Yarns Longmeadow, which is a cotton/acrylic blend and knitting with this yarn is like knitting with butter. I'm really liking it a lot and the colors are just so crisp. I'm making matching Candy Canes for my neice and nephew and hope to get a picture of the 2 of them together wearing the hats. That should be easy enough to finish. I started this at knitting night on Wednesday, so I've made good progress.

One final note, I'd like to assure Joanna that I'm in NO danger of running out of yarn... :-)

So, I took Beth's advice and weighed the sleeve and then the amount of yarn remaining...

1.5oz for the sleeve and 1 oz for the remaining yarn. Ummmm... Not so much going to work. Plus I also need to knit a button band for the cardigan.

I immediately called for reinforcements and the wonderful Carmen picked me up some more Mandarin from Misknits and is sending it to me. Yeah!

1 down...1 to go...

Ta da!!!! Finally one sleeve is completed. Yippeee!!!!
Now, I just need to finish another sleeve and I feel I might run into a little bit of a problem in that, this is how much yarn I have left...
So, who things that this is enough yarn to make a 11" long sleeve that is 8" at is smallest width and 11" at it's biggest????

Tell me I can make it...

SO, I went to Stitches East after all.
This is the haul. 3 skeins of The Neighborhood Fiber Company sock yarn. The company names the skeins after DC neighborhoods. How cool. Then there's some dark green alpaca for a hat for my nephew. Red and White yarn for matching hats for my neice and nephew. Green and Orange, more for the hat for my nephew and then two skeins of Maizy in green so my neice can have the "Green" socks she requested. I want to try this out. My neice has some sensativity to different fabrics, so I thought the corn fiber would be something to try.
Here's a close up the yarn from the Fiber Company.

I did learn a good lesson today though. I was all proud of myself. I made it all the way to Baltimore without getting lost. I found the convention center. I found my way back to the highway through all the closed streets in downtown Baltimore and was almost home when I went the wrong way on 495 and added an extra hour on to my trip. Thankfully 495 is a big loop around the city and I eventually made it to where I wanted to be and got home.

On a whole I was not as impressed with the marketplace at Stitches East. I did get to visit with Linda from Pajolo Alpacas, my most favorite vendor ever. She said to say hi to Suzie, Carmen and especially Beth.

I build

I went out and bought a bookshelf tonight, which required me to haul it upstairs to my apartment in several trips because the whole package was way too heavy for me to carry up at once. Then I built it. I'd include a picture, but I"m too tired to photograph.

So, I've decided to set my alarm tomorrow morning to get up to go to Stitches. If I get up, I go. If I sleep in, I stay home and clean the apartment and knit all day. Win-Win.

I'm tired. I really should trying to go to bed earlier, but I seem to have a mental block when it comes to going to bed earlier than midnight. Maybe I just need to stop having weird work dreams. I dreamt that HR manager who sits next to me and I interviewed candidates for jobs all night long. Back and forth between the two interview rooms we went...which if you work elsewhere might be uncommon, but I seem to interview between 3-10 people every week...

Still working on the neverending sleeve and the sad part is I still have 1 more to complete. I really, really want to finish it so I can finish the sweater. I'm also beginning to think I don't have enough yarn. I'm having a hard time gauging how much is left vs. 1 sleeve and 3 stripe pattern repeats. This could mean a call to the lovely Amber at Misknits to see if she has anymore. The pattern did only call for 1 skein of the secondary colors, so I'm hoping above all hopes that it will work out. It's going to come down to the wire though.

So, today's questions is...

Should I go to Stitches East or not?

One the positive side, it would be nice to go up to see Baltimore. The drive is only an hour. I could see what different kinds of yarn vendors there are in this area of the country. The lovely Linda from Pajolo Alpaca's will be there. Always a joy. I could acquire more stash. I could meet more knitters. I could buy size 4 circular needles in 36" which seem to be hiding from me in the local vicinity.

On the negative side, I really don't need any more yarn at the present time. I have to drive an hour. Since they're also having the Baltimore Marathon on Saturday, I would have to either go in early to avoid the closed streets or go in late and try to self-navigate through the unclosed streets. Streets close at about 7am and re-open at 3pm. Which is an early morning and a late afternoon. I would miss my nap. It will probably be expensive to park and cost $$s to get into the market so I can spend more money (the mind boggles at the concept of paying money so I can go in and spend more money)

What to do, what to do...

I'm 0-2...

...on children's mittens/mitts.
This one for my nephew is the right shape and right width, but apparently he has freakishly long fingers for a child his age, so it needs to be a bit longer. That's an easy thing to fix, much more so than the one for yesterday.

Other than that, I'm still on 1st sleeve island. I knitted 4 repeats today and I still have 15 ridges left before the sleeve is finished and then I have to do the second one. Remind me next time I decide to make a sweater for one of my neice's/nephews, that using fingering weight yarn is a bad idea.

In other news, how hard is it to find a Size 4 36" knitting needle???? Michael's doesn't carry anything smaller than a size 9 circular??? WTF??? Joann's has size 4, but only in 29". It's a good thing I'm going to the Stitches East market place next weekend so I can get some. Then I can get going on the Tangled Yoke cardigan. I've done 2 rows with my cobbled together Boye's, but it's just not working...

Ummmmm...

yeah....

I think I should probably use another pattern or make some changes...

So, I went to the outlet mall not too far from my house today to buy some chairs for my kitchen table. Pottery Barn was having a 40% off sale...verdict is that it's still too rich for my blood and not exactly what I was looking for...so, instead, I ended up with:

A sweater for me
A Halloween present for my sister
2 Christmas gifts
2 Toys - one for my neice and one for my nephew
A purse (hurrah! been looking for one for 2 months now)
Makeup
2 t-shirts - one for my neice and one for my nephew
1 pair of shoes

I didn't even make it through all the stores in the outlet mall. Carrying 7 bags at that point was more than I could handle. Whew!

So, no knitting got done. I came home and napped and then cleaned my kitchen.

There hasn't been much knitting going on in the last few days. I did got to several work happy hours. Yummy free drinks. :-)

I'm a bit overwhelmed because I have just a few projects going:

1. Treeking Socks
2. Regia Cotton socks
3. Nashua Surplice Top
4. Vintage Velvet Scarf
5. Lady Eleanor shawl
6. Miss Lambert's shawl
7. Flower basket shawl
8. Toddler Striped Cardigan
9. Tangled Yoke Cardigan

I really, really need to finish some projects...especially since I want to start another pair of socks. Has everyone seen these??? The Rainbow Socks from Magknits??? True Love I tell you. I want to start them. Ugghhh!!!

I also fell off the wagon and bought more yarn this week. I bought the Debbie Bliss Cathay from Little Knits for the Tahoe sweater from Knitty. I've been thinking about it for tw0 months and finally gave in and since I was paying for shipping anyway, I added some sock yarn...Fleece Artist and some Opal. I'm a terrible person...

Stuck on sleeve island

I've decided to try a revolutionary new idea and swatch for a sweater. I know. Everyone who knows me and knows I have this "devil may care attitude about guage", is trying to pick themselves off the floor. I bought some Elsbeth Lavold Silky wool to make ??? but since then I also bought some Belle Epoque Silk, which will work so much better for that. I'm still in love with the Silky wool and I've been wondering what to make with it...and then while blog surfing because I was bored, I found someone making Eunny Jang's Tangled Yoke cardigan with it. Yummy. I immediately ran to my Interweave stash to check out the guage and yarn requirements. Right way yarn check! Even better, I have enough yarn! Only question is whether or not I can get guage, because I really, really would like this cardigan to fit since I love it so,so much. Fingers crossed ladies, Fingers crossed.

I swatched in a size 5 like called for and a size 4 and while wet, the size 4 was a better guage. I'll have to see what it's like tomorrow after it's dry.



BTW - I did knit several rows on my neice's cardigan sleeves. No, I haven't totally thrown away the idea that I need to finish her cardigan prior to starting a new project. What you just see here is...swatching...Yeah! That's it...swatching in anticipation of finishing my neice's cardigan. I only wound the 1 ball that I would need for the cardigan. I didn't even wind the Brooks farm for the clapotis. I even found the 10.5 double points to make my neice some mittens, but haven't brought them out yet.



You will note the extreme amount of knitting ADD going on here as I try in vain to finish something... I only have 2 pairs of socks, 1 scarf, 1 summer sweater, my neice's cardigan and 3 shawls currently in process and yarn for 3 more sitting out trying to taunt me into casting on another project. Quite frankly, I'm sadly running out of stitch markers. Oh!



Your faithful knitter signing off, stuck on toddler sleeve island