Rain rain go away

Ugh. Yesterday was BEAUTIFUL and today is just gross. Hugs and kisses Ohio Valley! Your weather sucks! :( Not like I'm not used to it, right?

I haven't been knitting much. My socks are in time out and I'm not speaking to them. They're SO BIG and I just don't know what to do. I screwed up my dropstitch shaw too. I needed to have 74 stitches after my YOs and well, I have 77. Pretty sure that'll not drop correctly. *sigh* I was almost half way finished too.

I am working on my ISE6 scarf. I'm using some soft alpaca yarn and doing a nice dropstitch pattern. I should have learned my lesson about dropped stitches but at least w/this pattern you drop every row and not at the end. Less of a recipe for disaster.

My wrist has also been giving me trouble. I think I have a touch of carpal tunnel b/d HOLY SHIT. I can't even pick up a frying pan w/my right hand w/out it hurting. I don't have much grip in it and everything hurts it. Some days are far better than other and I'm learning if I don't knit then its on its best behavior. Go figure.

Baby's bit the dust it seems.

I've come to the conclusion I'm a shitty blogger. I read my Google Reader feeds like life depends on it, but I can't possibly be bothered to update my blog on a regular basis.

I haven't been knitting much in the past couple of weeks. I'm pissed. Pissed at my sock for being too effin big and pissed at my ability to totally eff up stockinette. Seriously. I'm just over it for a week or so. I thought I'd do a simple stockinette project (a drop-stitch shawl) to serve as mindless knitting. Obviously that was too involved b/c I have three extra stitches and that's just going to ruin the whole thing. Gotta start over. *sigh*

Maybe I should start something a little more involved? Oh wait. I bet I'll screw that up too. I'm just in a knitting funk and I'll get out of it. Promise.

xoxo

A wee distracted...

...by the awesome that is Ravelry. You'll have to excuse my slacky blog. Baby's been busy :)

Between being up to my ass in work, taking a weekend trip, and knitting, I've hardly had time to blog! I've not really even knit that much either. :( I do spend a lot of time on Ravelry and I really should stop! It's addictive though and it's all I can do most days to NOT log on in lieu of working.

Did I mention Baby's all snotty? The Ohio Valley is a wonderful place to live if you have severe allergies. WONDERFUL. I mean, you get to have watery eyes so you save money on make up, there's always the tissues so you boost the economy...it's awesome. Truly awesome. If you could see me now...wow. I look like I've either been beat up or crying. Or crying over being beat up. Either way, it blows. Heh.

You know what doesn't blow? That "Letter have it" bag I've been working on. I've not posted about it because it's a birthday present for my BFF but I don't think she has the link to this yet and I'm giving her the bag on Saturday so there's time to sneak in a post!

I started on my second felted bag right after I finished the green and brown one. Except I didn't like this one. I was bored w/the stockinette and garter stitches. HATE. It's taken me over a month to finish this because I swear...if I have to make one more garter ridge...I may go nutty. Oh and I had to learn intarsia. And I have to learn i-cords tonight. YAY. Oh wait! The best part...I have to sew the damn thing, felt it, consider lining it, then sew a zipper. The hard part isn't even here yet. Good thing I love BFF, right? Right!

Some pictures:

The back panel

The beginnings of the side/center panel:

And then Baby learns intarsia!!

What's that you say? It looks like a total cluster? You're right!!!

This was SUCH a pain in my ass. I ended up with about eight bobbins.

The finished product is quite nice though. There is a "hole" at the bottom where I worked my first row. I thought I had twisted the yarn but what I thought was twisted wasn't :)

The back is a total mess because I had to strand some of it a teeny bit. The whole thing should have been stranded but whatev. Baby's learnin.

See all those little pieces? Ugh. I'm assuming I should sew them in prior to felting :( I should also try to sew up that hole where I didn't twist the yarn too. More ugh.

I'm really really really dreading tonight's work on this. I have to sew it all together, icord piping on the edges, make handles, felt...UGH. I'm really not into this at all right now. I don't like the handles that come w/the pattern either so I REALLY want to buy some and sew them on myself...I think that'd be way cuter too. We'll see!!!

Pictures Pictures!

Before I dashed off to work this morning (err....afternoon) I snapped some pictures of what's on the needles and what I've finished lately:

My coworker is having a baby boy in early December. Her husband was in the Army and he's really into hunting and all that business...so of course the baby needs a camo blankie!

I'm using Lion Brand's Diagonal Pattern Baby Blanket with Red Heart's Super Saver in Camo doubled on #11 straights. I have a feeling that I'm going to run out of room on the needles. I have 52 (I think) stitches on the needles right now and need to double that to get the blankie the size I want. I guess you just cram them on, right?

*Note how that chair in the background looks so...loved. That's Maddy's homebase. Normally she's there but Mommy had opened the curtains for her so she could sun her sweet belly.*

It's a simple pattern once you get started: K3, yo, knit to end of row. After you get it as big as you want, you start the decreases. The yo gives that cute border and I love love the diagonal of it all. I loathe casting on b/c I never pull out enough tail and then when I pull out a lot, it's way too much and I waste yarn. HATE. This way, I only had to cast on 5 stitches and will only have to bind off that many too.

It's working up pretty quickly too. I did what's on the needles in about three hours total time. Not bad considering I was watching "America's Next Top Model" and a myriad of other "trash TV" as Al so lovingly calls it.

You can see the yo better in this pic:

It's not really all wonky and curved. It's crammed on that needle and won't lie flat.

And to see how thick it is...it's going to be really cozy. I hope the baby likes!!


I also took some pics of Al's scarf. Still no word if they can get the yarn for me or not :( Baby's displeased.

Isn't it pretty? I love how the sides are wavy. And closeup so you can see what a sloppy knitter I am :)

I really want to work on this more b/c I love the pattern but since I'll be putting the "new" ball of yarn in the middle, I'm stuck.

The irresponsible amount of cotton yarn I ordered:


Those are 1lb cones in apple green, black, brown, white, black/white/gray, pink/yellow/green, shades of brown, pink/white/black. There are also some small leftovers that I'll eventually make one big dishtowel out of when I get enough. I also have a cone of a lovely cream/brown/blue/lime that's in the travel bag. It goes to doctor's offices, car trips, etc. I toss them in big plastic zipper bags, cut off the end and knit out of it. Keeps the dog hair at bay. I love Maddy but not everyone wants Maddy all up in their dishcloths.

Some finished ballband dishcloths:

There are a few more floating around but Baby just does not have the time nor energy to find those suckers. The two in the center were my "Damnit, I'm knitting two dishcloths on this trip!" cloths. The one on the right I managed to do last Sunday whilst Al and I traversed Southern Indiana and Bardstown, KY. Baby's a prodigy, no? hahaha

Oh and this knitting in lieu of eating business is gonna work I think. I knitted on that blanket last night/this morning instead of digging through the fridge for something I didn't need. Yay!

Well hell

I swear on my yarn that I didn't forget about this blog! There's this thing that gets in the way of my knitting and blogging...maybe you've heard of it? WORK. Uh! I've been a busy kitten these past two weeks! Busy busy busy.

Oh! So remember how I was allll excited that this yarn shop across town had my ever-lovin yarn? Not so much. They had Lamb's Pride Bulky but not in superwash. I bought it anyway b/c the lady was so nice and b/c I made my first scarf out of it and I think a hat would be cute. Go fig. I'm such a sucker.

I called another LYS even more across town and while they don't have what I want, they offered to order it. I'm expecting a call early in the week to give me an ETA and cost. Cross your needles for me, girls!!

I went to my second felted bag class and the Ladies Who Knit were impressed with my bag I think! While part of me thinks they're always this sweet, I do think they thought I did a nice job. That made Baby feel really good and made the cramped hand from sewing worth it!

Since I was all yarned up with no pattern to knit, Whitney (the sweet instructor) suggested I make a super cute bag and learn intarsia while I was at it. Oh sure. I can fig that out. RIGHT! Anyway, I knitted the back and most of the side panel. Once I finish that, I'll tackle the front and the intarsia. We'll see how that goes. I'd post pics of it but it's going to be a gift for a friend and I don't want her seeing it!!

Other than that and the occasional dishcloth, Baby's knitting has been at a stand-still. NO FUN. :(

I've stayed caught up on the other Knitting Blogs I Love and everyone else has been so busy! I'm nearly jealous.

Aside from that, I "rededicated" myself to Weight Watchers. Heh. I'd lost 27 pounds last year and then sorta just stopped. Stopped weighing, stopped counting points, etc. I managed to only gain 2.4 lbs in that time off so I"m not too heartbroken. Maybe I can knit in lieu of stuffing my face? Here's to hoping!!

1 + 1 = 3

So we're all clear, thus far, all my knitting disasters haven't involved poor knitting, but poor arithmetic. Baby's not so good with the simple math. The hard stuff, I got. Adding? Not so much.

This gray yarn. This pretty, reasonably expensive, gray yarn. It's Lamb's Pride Superwash Bulky in Charcoal Gray for those that give a rat's ass. In the interest of disclosing all info (this is critical in having the whole story) it was $10/ball at my LYS. There are 110 yards per ball and each ball is also 100 grams. Again, critical information.

Since we all know I suck at math, I decided that the simple math in making a swatch was just trouble waiting to happen. So I got out my trusty food scale (Weight Watchers is my babydaddy), switched it to the metric setting, and weighted my yarn and one of my needles. Yup. There are 100 grams of yarn and one needle is 10 grams. Made notes. Started knitting.

I finished one pattern repeat and weighed it. Did the "hard math" and determined if I kept my current gage, that my scarf would be just the right length.

So I knitted. And I knitted. And I counted rows. And I miscounted rows. Then I bought a row counter (all problems solved then!). I knitted until I finished the first ball almost entirely. Then I weighed my work. Then...then I measured it.

There's no coincidence that SHIT and KNIT rhyme. Baby said a lot of bad words that night. My wonderful hard work was only two feet long. Let's do the math together:

1 ball = 2 feet

2 balls = 4 feet

4 foot scarf + 6'3 Hunk of Man = Too short scarf

Too short scarf = Baby losing her shit

Al tried to console me and suggest just going to buy more yarn. Genius! Not so much :( My LYS was OUT OF THE COLOR! I damn near passed out. What was I to do?? The Lovely Ladies Who Knit suggested I get another color and add it to the ends. Too bad all they had in stock was Frilly Girly Man colors. This just would not do.

I came home, employed Al's help and we set off searching the internet for said yarn. I had rationalized that dye lot wouldn't matter at this point. I'd just work the new yarn next and the old yarn last. That way, when around his sweet little neck, the ends would match and the middle would match. I'm so smart!

But the internet failed us. While Baby is desperate for this yarn, she's also not going to spend $6.95 to have it shipped to her. Oh hell no. I searched and searched to no avail. I decided I'd give it 4 weeks, then I'd rip out and start over. *sigh* Al offered to buy another type for himself so that I could still use this beauuuuuuutiful pattern. How sweet. While sweet, that had me knitting TWO scarves for his sweet little neck. Baby already crocheted two for him last winter. Two more already? Goodness!

Yesterday, in a fit of desperation, I started calling other LYSs in the area. A dear, sweet woman across town confirmed she had one ball of my so-desired yarn. ONE BALL. I begged her to hold it and she did! I offered my first born and my Visa number, but she declined. I'm picking it up on Tuesday (my day off). Cross your fingers and needles!