Live and Let Knit

Wow it sure has been a long time since my last post.

I got derailed by 2 bad knitting projects - The first was my sheldon turtle where I just cant get the crochet part right and the second was a pair of socks where I hated the color, and the pooling is all wrong so I had to rip and reknit 4 times. Then, just when I finally got it to pool the right way on the heel I got to an unexcusable knot and the manufacturer has reversed the colorway. So… I threw out the sock, needles and all. Time to re-boot.

I started on another color work item - the Sipalu Bag. I didn’t realize how small this bag actually is… The kit says it can make 3-4 bags!

I was making good progress until a friend at work loaned me the book Twilight. I’m almost finished andit was well worth it. I did see the movie first which from what I’ve heard is the better order.

So - pictures in a few days. I also need to pick out something simple to knit on the bus next week.

This is the felted bucket hat - super quick and easy to make.

I had my first day back at work yesterday

Sad to say that I made zero progress on the knitting and cleaning projects I wanted to get finished during my time off.

The deck project did get finshed and we’ve had a few nice days to play out there.

This time while I’m out on maternity leave I’m forcing myself to be a lot more productive. Last time I spent way too many hours watching Discovery/TLC/History Channels. I remember watching the same documentary on Dracula three times.

This time I’m going to be knitting, light home repairs, listening to audio books, reading up on photography techniques, and some sewing.

So far I’ve made a lot of progress on some Christmas presents, started Sheldon the turtle for Regan and made progress on my stow away shopping bag.

The highlight for this week was knocking out one of the last 3 major renovations on the house and having the kitchen floor transformed from crappy vinyl to ceramic tile:

Next week the deck for the back yard begins. Hubby and I are excited about that one since it will give the girls a place to play outside without them being able to run to the pool before we can catch them.

Wow - has it really been a month since my last post? Time is surely flying by. The new baby will be here anyday now.

I posted a bunch of pictures on Ravelry, but I forgot to do them here as well. It’s tough now to keep things in both places.

So, I’ll start off with widget… this started out to be a sock yarn scrap blanket made from the pattern by Shelly Kang. I realized that I had enough leftovers to repeat colors and make a pattern but now I’m at a loss for what to do with this thing…. any ideas?

My Clapotis is finished, and also a pair of Ladder of Life Socks. I had to make the socks a short row heel since I only had one ball of the cascade 220 superwash.

Then there’s my second Baby Surprise sweater for Paula’s little one (Welcome to the world little J!!). This is more of the Farmhouse Yarns silk blend - knitted on US8s to make it more of a spring sweater.

A pair of socks for hubby’s birthday (Pattons Kroy), and a jump start of some Christmas presents (Knitpicks Telemark)

Currently on the needles is a StowAway Shopping Bag and pair of Blueberry Waffles socks, but there might be a big problem here. I gave the first finished sock to Rachel to play with and now I can’t find it anywhere. Last night I woke up with the thought that she may have tossed it in the trash

Pattern: Leo size L, US 3 and 4 Needles

Yarn: Farmhouse Yarns Silk Blend - Goldenrod - 5 Hanks

Date: August 2008 - Knit for Ravelympics 2008 in the wipswrestling category.

For the most part I’m happy with the way this turned out. For starters it fits. 2008 has been a better year in sizing for me. I did knit the majority of the body in the round which I reccomend. In hindsight I would have made the sleeves shorter by at least 2 inches and added that yarn to the body length - the sleeves will need to be rolled up on hubby.

One thing I’m annoyed about is that when I soaked the yarn before blocking a lot of the dye came out in the bath and you can see the the skein for the very bottom of the sweater dried to a different shade than the other 4 skeins. It’s good that it’s the bottom of the body and not the middle of the body so we’ll just live with it.

Leo is underway and I’ve signed it up as part of the WIP Wrangling event for the Ravelympics. I’ve got the sleeves and about half of the body completed. I really hope I don’t run out of yarn for this sweater! The yarn is the Silk Blend from Farmhouse yarns and the pattern is endless 5×3 ribbing on size 4 needles.

Rachel is going to be a big sister!!!!

Her little sister is scheduled to debut at the end of September

Pattern: Salina, size L, US 3 and 5 Needles

Yarn: Farmhouse Yarns Autumn/Summer Spun - 3.5 Hanks

Date: June 20008

This is probably the first time in ages that I’ve had gauge all the way through a project and been very satisfied with the end product.  This baby fits!  The only adjustment I made was to block the sleeves out to be longer than in the diagram and I left out the seed stitch cuffs until I see how it hangs/drapes after a few times wearing.  It will be quite a while before I can actually wear this, but I’m glad it’s done and ready for the Fall.

So.. I’m a few days over the one month deadline I had set for myself.  Hubby and I both got colds that knocked us off our feet for almost a week so I didn’t get the seaming done in time.  I didn’t think it was possible to sleep for 3 days straight but now I know!  I had to make a run to JoAnns to get the buttons and picked up an Ott-Lite for my b-day present.  I have enough yarn left over that I may try to unvent a toddler sized sweater to match.

My next project is the infamous Clapotis.   A long time ago I had read in blogland that Knit Picks Shimmer held double stranded was a good choice for Clapotis so I ordered some (probably to round out an order to qualify for the free shipping LOL).  It sat in may stash for 2 years so I decided to wind it up and give it a go.   I don’t know how other people have faired, but I had to rip and restart the first ~20 rows about 10 times.  I always seemed to have one extra or one short on the count and since I can’t see if it will effect the pattern I decided to just start over each time.    I’ve made it to the second drop stitch and to be honest I’m not enjoyoing this pattern.   It’s probably due more to the fact that this yarn should have been used to make a thin lace scarf rather than this double stranded mess.   I’m going to keep working on it - some Ravelry posts say they didn’t like it until they blocked it so I’m going to give it a chance. 

Today is Spa Day for Salina.

 The podcast over at knitpicks painted a really neat image of how blocking is a spa treat that we can give our yarn after all of the mangling, twisting, chemical processing, and “knotting” that we do to it.  It really made me feel different about the whole process - more of a doing something special than a boring old chore.

 My hope is to do the seaming and finishing tomorrow and make it the first time I’ve ever knit a whole sweater in under a month!  I have enough yarn left over that I might try to scale down the size and make a matching sweater sized for a 3 year old.

 My other project was a little backpack for the toddler.  I’ll post pictures once I can get the embroidering part finished.   I just need to go get the scrap yarns out of storage first.

 My Louet euroflax worsted arrived so next in line is another surprise project for the long-range-planning bin.