Yop#2.32-36 or It's Been Too Cold to Blog

Saying that it's been too cold to blog is really a horrible excuse but it's the only one I have. The desire to sit in front of a computer has been low when I could be bundled up under blankets, streaming Star Trek on Netflix, while knitting. It's also been hard to get time in front of the computer when my brain is in the right spot to write.

So enough excuses and an update instead.

I FINISHED THE GLOVES!!!!

I don't have a photo of them finished yet (it has been below stupid cold here lately and I haven't have the patience to get Husband to model them in the car. I just want to be out of the car and somewhere warm) but Husband has been enjoying them. He told me that I had to finish it before I started my next project so that really motivated me to get them done. That and I was really tired of them.

So what did I cast on next? A pattern test for a sweater but not just any design. This sweater was inspired from the Ensign sweater that Wesley Crusher wears often in the Star Trek: Next Generation series. It's been available for streaming on Netflix and I had only watched a handful of episodes here and there. People would make references and I would smile and nod as though I knew who they were talking about. (Most of the smiling and nodding had to do with the character Q because I didn't want to have gasps of disappointment that I didn't know who they were talking about.) On a whim I decided to start watching the series from the start. After only an episode or two, Husband joined in. When I went looking through the free pattern tests forum to see if there was anything I really wanted/needed to knit, I saw the sweater and knew I had to do it. It would mean buying yarn most likely as I tend to have a lot of single skeins and it would be making a sweater which has intimidated me greatly.

After a yarn shopping trip with Husband (he was having to wear the sweater after all and he did agree to the trip!) at Lakeside Yarn (I'd won a gift certificate there last year at the Yarn Shop Hop) and digging through my stash, I was able to make a swatch and start the sweater.

It's been going really well and quite quickly. Amazing what knitting on medium size yarn on larger needles is like! Husband has even noted how much faster the sweater is compared to his gloves. It's also easier to be using someone else's pattern and not adjusting everything as you go! Even though it's straight knitting (once I get through the shoulder increases) for most of it, I'm really liking that it's a relatively mindless project.  And seeing as how I'm currently updating about once a month, it may even be finished by the time I write again.

Of course, it does mean that my Girl on Fire socks have been put temporarily on hold until I needed to change colours and was out somewhere and then I would work on them. While I had hoped to get them done before the first Cookie A package arrived this year, it seems that it just wasn't meant to be. At least I'm not getting paid or graded on my knitting timeliness!

Finished Projects 

• Mint Twist Socks
• Shrubbery Caulking
• Husband Driving Gloves

Works in Progress

• Lilia Socks
• Browncoat Top  
• Girl on Fire
• Pretty Pillars Test 
• My Driving Gloves 
• Crusher Sweater 

YOP #2.27-31 or This is How a Month Passes You By

Well....I apparently suck at this blogging this so far this year. In good news, I've been productive this year. Since I last wrote, I've refinished part of a futon/couch thing (I also intend to blog about that), hacked many portals, bought new yarn and started roller derby practices again as well as all the usual fun stuff at work.

Additionally, I've spent a lot of time not on the computer when I get home. Blogging at work is...odd, so I tend to not do it in general unless I need to get something out of my head before I go home. The plus side to not being on the computer is that I've gotten more knitting done.

Husband's second glove is starting to get a finger. I was hoping to strand the colors behind each other loose enough that I'd be able to save some time just going forward instead of flipping back and forth. I've tried the first finger twice now and it's messing up my gauge too much and making it too hard to get my finger in, let alone his (not that I've tried, but I don't want to), so once more to frogging it. Then it'll be doing it the twisty way of flipping back and forth as I knit and purl. Due to the semi-tricky step of picking up a stitch to knit or purl with the last stitch of each round and then slipping yarn in front of the stitch on the other side of the end of the round, it's easier to flip back and forth instead of trying to knit backwards. It's also so tiny. I also realized that while Husband is using his one finished glove (and will soon use the pair) that I can send a completely unused pair to this year's state fair as that will be about the time I get around to finishing my pair of gloves.

I've had some time to work on my Girl on Fire socks. I'm nearing the last repeat of the leg pattern. I know once I get past the heel then the sock will go flying off my needles. My pretend goal is to have this pair finished before the next Cookie A package shows up. Seeing as how the first package isn't being mailed out until February 14th, I may actually manage to do this.

In exciting FO land, I have my first 2015 project! I made a pair of boot cuffs for a friend at church. While prepping Christmas decorations, she asked if I'd ever made boot cuffs. I hadn't but I did have a pattern that I wanted to make. She wanted a green pair and we eventually narrowed down the color to green and I showed her a picture of a skein of yarn I thought would work. Sure enough, she loved them! She asked how much I wanted for them and I said they were either a late Christmas gift or an early birthday present (turns out her birthday is in September so it's a very early birthday present). I know that she wanted to pay me and that Husband would think I should be paid but I knit because I enjoy it. She's given me all kinds of chances to use my talent of lighting at church as well as taken the time to get to know me (our church is about 30 miles away in one direction). Maybe one day I'll be up for selling them but for now, I like making gifts for friends. Besides, I have no idea how much to charge for them!

Here they are, just before I gave them to her. I nearly forgot to take a picture!

Finished Projects 

• Mint Twist Socks
• Shrubbery Caulking

Works in Progress

• Lilia Socks
• Browncoat Top  
• Husband Driving Gloves  
• Girl on Fire
• Pretty Pillars Test 
• My Driving Gloves 

YOP #2.24-26 or Surviving the Holidays

This picture isn't what it seems. I have often posted a picture that looked exactly like this through out this half of the year. This one is quite different. It's the second glove! To be technical, it's the third glove as the second glove is the 1st glove of the Husband's pair and the first glove was suppose to be the 1st glove of his pair but has turned into the 1st glove of my pair which will eventually get finished. Eventually. The reason that this is so exciting isn't because it means I only have five (or 11 if you count my gloves) fingers left, but because it means that the first glove is finished!


Here is the right glove in all it's glory. I may have actually woken up yesterday morning at 7 am so I could finish weaving in the ends so he could wear it to work. (This also explains the quality of the pictures...better ones coming at some point.)

The thumb and first two fingers have a conductive thread knit in them so that the car's touchscreen can be used without removing one's gloves.

This grey yarn was found at a store in Sparta, WI where we stopped to charge after a camping trip. Husband picked out this yarn. It's been lovely to work with as it has aloe in it. 

This is proof that I love my Husband. I knit intarsia gloves, in the round. I'm sure I could gift a ton of these (there's no way I could sell them; no one would pay that much) but I don't know who else I love enough to knit that many fingers.

One of us is amused by this picture.

This were finished up after Christmas. While I had all of last week off, this is really my first week of vacation. Between taking the little dog to the vet (she has been scratching her eye too much which irritates it and causes her to scratch it more) and doing shopping for everyone (including myself) and serving at church (6 Christmas services in 2 days; I think I've recovered; this was actually one of my favorite parts last week), I didn't get much knitting done. I got some done at church while the worship band rehearsed (after I set all the lighting) and then during the Pastor's riveting sermons (they are really good but it's a lot to hear one that many times; the 6th service was different at least) but not nearly as much as I had envisioned doing. Of course, I have an odd sense of time and space some days which means I'm often surprised when I can't get everything done.

I did manage to finish one of the Girl on Fire Socks. For some reason, I still have to look up the start of the kitchener stitch. You would think I'd done it enough times by now to know it by heart! The first one was finished during a sermon and I started the next one between services. I'm not at all surprised how smoothly the second sock is going now that I know the pattern. Cookie A's patterns seem to be like that more often than not. They look intimidating (I had a few people look at them and comment about how hard they look) but once you know what is going on, they are really simple. I love that they look hard than they really are. Not that some of her patterns aren't hard. This just happens to be one that isn't.



The most exciting news from the last couple of weeks is that I finally have a finished object! Of course, I meant for it to be finished several months ago... Maybe I'll learn to not ground projects for nearly as long.

Finished Projects 

• Mint Twist Socks

Works in Progress

• Lilia Socks
• Browncoat Top  
• Husband Driving Gloves  
• Girl on Fire
• Pretty Pillars Test 
• My Driving Gloves 

YOP #2.19-23 or I'm Not Dead Yet

It has been over a month since I've blogged anywhere. Part of that is due to my work schedule and being so drained from it that sitting down to write would require a different attention span than I currently have available to me. Part of it is personal reasons that can stay off the internet. And the final part is that I don't feel like I've really made enough progress on anything to write about it. Of course, there has been some progress, just not as much as I want to have finished.

I've finished the 2nd Mint Twist sock and had my friend try it on before I closed up the toe. Success! I even managed to frog the 1st sock back to where I needed to add to the heel flap without losing any stitches in the pattern. The toe decreases were just started last night, which will hopefully mean that I'll have a finished pair come Sunday. This will be the first thing I've finished since July...gah. Though one could argue that I finished the Pretty Pillars Test sock...but only one sock. I plan on doing the 2nd one soon as it was a quick knit, so it's still on my WiPs list.

I know I shouldn't beat myself up as much as I do about my progress. Heck, there have been several days in a row (almost a week even) that I didn't knit anything.

I should probably finish the thumb on the first pair of gloves that were suppose to be for Husband. I've started the second pair (the first one) so that he can have them before the new year...at least I'm taking the weeks of Christmas and New Year's day off so that this is a higher likely hood of happening. I've started the 2nd finger and need to add the silver thread to it. I spent a week house-sitting for a friend and decided that Husband would prefer his gloves to not have tons of dog and cat hair in them and I didn't want to have to worry about my friend's mouthy dog (he's only just over a year old, so I get it) eating the thread. My plan is to pick up working on them on Monday when things slow down at work.

 My last Cookie A 2014 sock club yarn showed up today. Mom signed us up for it again next year which I'm excited about. I'm only doing one club next year as even though I keep seeing yarn (and sales!) that are tempting, I want to really make a dent in the stash I have.

Works in Progress

• Lilia Socks
• Mint Twist Socks
• Browncoat Top  
• Husband Driving Gloves  
• Girl on Fire
• Pretty Pillars Test 

YOP#2.18 or Being an Adult is Hard

Not a ton of knitting this past week. A lot of time was spent giving up my craft room. You read that correctly. I decided to let my oldest step-daughter move into my craft room so she would have her own room. It hasn't been easy for me and while Husband will point out that I do most of my crafting elsewhere, it was my space. He had built it for me. Technically he built a nook in the room for me but we refinished it for me and my use. It has my sense of color and lighting. The ceiling is a beautiful blue and white that he thought I was mad to have him paint until he saw a sunrise in it. I don't see many sunrises but I knew what it would look like based on my past experiences with lighting. And now someone else is in it.

So I spent a lot of last week preparing to move things out and around in the room. Some things are staying (my supplies in my nook for example) but most things have moved out. It's been hard for me because most of the moving happened while I was working a choir rehearsal (I agreed to do the rehearsal so I wouldn't have to work the concert and I did get some knitting done during that). In hindsight, I would have insisted that they wait to move the bookcases until I got home as there's been a bit of drama around them. I think it would have helped me with the changes. I really don't like change. At all. I take it as a sign of huge growth that I didn't break down bawling when one of our staff members at work left this past summer. I cried when I left my last job and I hated my last job. In college, I was a music major and had to play in the concert band, which is required to play at graduation. At the end of my sophomore year when a good friend of mine was graduating, I was a horrible mess. It was amazing I could play my flute at all. My professor looked at me and asked what was going to happen when I graduated. I said I would cry a lot and I did. I believe I spent the last 2 months of college crying off and on at random points.

Anyway......

The knitting I did get done was to cast on a new project. It's a test knit for someone I've knit for in the past. It's to do a single sock and rate the pattern. It's a lovely pattern and I will have the pair done eventually but I needed a palette cleanser with my projects. It's been a fast knit and I'm almost done with the leg. I probably would be farther along if it wasn't for tonight's show...Contemporary music has never really been my thing and it's not something I can just tune out and knit to. I have to pay attention to call lighting cues, which is the part I enjoy the most.

So no real progress on the other projects. Of course, if I managed to update on Sunday, I would probably feel like I had more to write but between roller derby, work and real life drama, sitting down at the computer on a Sunday is hard to do. The only reason I'm managing to do it now is because I have a pie baking and this is keeping me awake. Perhaps I shall knit some more while the pie finishes. (Also, if you managed to make it this far, thank you for reading my venting; apparently when I don't knit enough due to stress, I have to write about why I'm not knitting).

Works in Progress

• Lilia Socks
• Mint Twist Socks
• Browncoat Top  
• Husband Driving Gloves  
• Girl on Fire
• Pretty Pillars Test 

YOP #2.16-17 or My How Time Flies When it Gets Cold!

Another two weeks have come and gone. Not only has life (and work) been busy but so has my knitting. No pictures this time but lots of progress to report on.

Gloves

Husband's gloves have turned into my gloves. I got the index finger done and had him try it on. I thought it might be a little tight but he said it was good. As he was going away for part of the weekend (something about being a renegade with his friends), so I measured his fingers. By the time he got home, I was nearly done with the ring finger. I finished it and the pinky finger and had him try it on and he admitted that it tight on all of the fingers. This actually didn't surprise me as it was fitting my hand fine. I nearly cried as I stared at the glove thinking that I'd have to pull things apart and add to the fingers. Instead, Husband told me that I should make them my gloves so we would have a matching set. Now the question is, do I finish the entire set or make the right hand glove for Husband as well?

Brown Coat

I've slowly made progress on this. There is definitely shaping going on and armholes are starting to show. I'm feeling much better about this project. It's sort of my mindless knit right now.

Girl on Fire

It feels like forever since I've touched these socks but it hasn't been that long. I'm on the foot and it's a delightful pattern. It's sort of a quick knit as well so long as I have time to work on it.

Mint Twist

These socks have been ungrounded. I'm making really good progress on them thanks to having a handful of shows at work. They have become the travel project as I'd like to finish them before Christmas as they were a birthday gift...from May. My friend that I'm making them for has decided to try her hand at knitting socks. She's been knitting for years but has been intimidated by socks. A combination of things has made her interested in trying a simply pair and I've agreed to help her.

She and I went to one of the local yarn stores (StevenBe's) and I found this amazing skein of Miss Bab's Yowza yarn. The most amazing part was that I didn't buy the yarn. Oh, I really, really wanted to but I said no yarn purchases until 2015. It's also a good thing I don't carry cash that often as that was the only way I was willing to buy it. I could have argued that since I have sold off a skein of yarn, I could use that to buy new yarn. That felt like cheating though so I walked away (somehow) without it.

Perhaps by next week there will be pictures and something finished!

Works in Progress

• Lilia Socks
• Mint Twist Socks
• Browncoat Top  
• Husband Driving Gloves  
• Girl on Fire

YOP #2.15 or This is What Progress Feels Like!

I don't know how, but this week I knit on almost everything!

Arrow Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix so Husband and I sat around and watched a few episodes this week. As we did so, I worked on his glove. I figured out part of the problem. The pattern says to increase after the ribbing. Husband's hands are just...unique. This probably also has to do with not swatching but I think his hands are also not your average pattern friendly. So I frogged that first row and instead of increasing the stitches, I decreased a few. I knit enough rows to begin the thumb gusset and had him try it one. It looked much better. As I knit (and made notes; so many notes for the second glove), I would occasionally stop and make him give me his hand to try it on. It's going so much better! Right now I'm only working on it while he's around so that I can be constantly putting it on his hand. These will be the most custom gloves ever made.

On Saturday I hosted a craft day. I was trying not to pout because I worried people wouldn't show up. I was very pleased that I ended up with 3 of my friends over and I got to work on Girl on Fire. I finished up the leg, heel flap and turned the heel before it was time to go out to a show with a friend of mine. Before people showed up, I managed to get a sort-of life line into the sock I need to frog. It's hard to follow just before the heel and on a pattern that has cables and lace work. Hopefully it'll get me close but I know feel like I can finish the second sock.

I did hear back from the designer for Browncoat. I didn't make any progress, but I did take some photos tonight.

Works in Progress

• Lilia Socks
• Mint Twist Socks
• Browncoat Top  
• Husband Driving Gloves  
• Girl on Fire