Snow day

So I think winter finally got me. 

Work let us off early on Tuesday to avoid traffic troubles, hopefully. I made a quick trip to the grocery store since it is only a block away from my house. I wanted to get some things so I could cook on my snow day, Wednesday.

So I pull up facing my driveway with food in the trunk and I see way too much snow plowed in the end of the driveway and proceeded to have a conversation with myself. "I can make it to the garage, No I will get stuck, I can make it" then my car screamed at me Nooooooooo, I will get stuck and it will take way longer to dig me out! Remember the food in the trunk. 

I trudged my way to the garage on foot and fired up the snow thrower. No matter what way I turned the chute, snow flew at me. It took me a bit to realize it was forming a snow helmet. Man, snow helmets are cold!

This is what I am referring to as the never ending sweater, with Gus giving his opinion. Turns out he did not like it just about the same amount as his Daddy. 

D did not like the gold stripes so I am re knitting again. I will be so happy when I finish this sweater! No really, words can not describe how much I want it done! Why do you mock me?

This is what bread looks like when you make it the long way. It did taste good. One loaf went to work with me and was consumed there and the other was consumed at home with chicken spaghetti. Took 9 hours from start to pulling it out of the oven. Most of the time was waiting for the bread to do its thing but still that is what I call slow bread, or in this case snow day bread.

Oh and my first Central Park Hoodie class was canceled due to road conditions. I would like to start on something else now. Maybe I should just go work on one of my four in progress socks instead. I need to finish something soon!

Home cooking and another sweater

So this is what Brrrr looks like on the inside of our house. I made the roast with veggies and gravy. Can you see the steam rising from the plates? I went to sit down and it looked so cool hot that I had to take a picture for you.

The other night I made another one of my cold weather go-to meals. This is cheesy hamburger stew or as we used to call it can casserole. In the past I used canned vegetables instead of frozen ones. I think I like this dish more than D but he seems to see the point of it when it is really cold outside.

I've been working on my oops sweater to see if I can finally finish it. I thought I was running out of yarn so it was consigned to time out. I bought two colors (because I am indecisive). I was trying to figure out which color to use so I was going to put it to a vote here. But it turns out I am also impatient, because I knit to the correct length with the remaining blue yarn then I added in the red yarn. Then I knit for a bit more and added in the gold yarn.

See what I mean about hard choices sometimes you just suck it up and use both of them. I will show you results when I get it done. Soon D will be very happy to have another sweater, and I can start on my Central Park Hoodie with no UFO (UnFinished Object) guilt. Oh happy knitting day.

Happy New Year

Last year we were home in SD and all I could think about was the start of the new year. Well a huge snow storm, to keep you inside and new knitting books will do that to you. None of the posts that I wrote in my head made it here to the blog. Sigh

This year seemed to lack much of last year's contemplation. So does that mean I will have more action? I don't really do resolutions because they are so easy to break. I think I try to be more realistic and adjust things as the year goes on, rather than deciding the week before a date that I don't really want to be the same person in a month. Resolutions are just too difficult, gradual change is much more attainable.

I have set a goal for the next year, I want to learn the cyrillic alphabet with the long term goal of being able to read Russian. I know it is an odd one but I like to learn. I have trouble understanding spoken languages at times but then thought maybe I can learn to read and write another language. Silly me I choose one that includes learning another alphabet too. A girl can dream can't she? I would like to surprise D's coworker with a handwritten note in Russian. Turns out the good thing is that in the Russian language things are spelled as they sound so once I get the sounds figured out spelling should not be an issue for me. I am a phonetic speller so I may have found a language that I can use.

I went to my yarn store today to find a solution to the knitting problem I have been ignoring. This sweater is now 90% completed with not enough yarn to finish it. It has been weighing heavily on me but I have been ignoring it. I took it to the shop today and had help picking out two yarn colors that may allow me to finish it. The sweater is a blue-grey color, I want to do the collar and cuffs in a red or gold color. I am not sure how it will turn out but I am sick of avoiding the problem. I am a product knitter and the product is just not coming out yet. This baby may have to come out by cesarian!

I felt like I was dressed as a real knitter this last week for the first time. I had on my new Multnomah shawl and my Norwegian mittens and the cold did not affect me. I felt down right knitterly! Hey my computer does not know that knitterly is a real word in my world.

If you're keeping score D's British Racing Green sweater is moving right along. I have separated the arm stitches from the body stitches and am about halfway done on the body. The third skein has been joined in and I am happy. I have promised this will be ready this winter for him to wear.

Apparently

Apparently, I will be without thought in the coming year. I started a new sweater for D, a lovely British Racing Green sweater out of Cascade 220. This yarn feels good to me. It is nice every once in a while to use another weight of yarn. I have three different socks on the needles (one I have not picked up in weeks) and the shawl I just finished was a sport weight wool. So this light worsted weight feels substantial in my hands now.

I like making sweaters now. When I started knitting I had no wish or desire to ever make a sweater. I can not remember if I thought it was too complicated or boring or what. Wait that is not totally true I did think once or twice wouldn't it be cool if I could knit a whole Norwegian sweater? I went to a college that had many Norwegian students. They all seemed to wear a certain type of sweater, usually as a combined coat/shirt. I asked a Norwegian student if they could bring one home for me to buy. That is when I found out they went for over $200. Now that was 10% of a semester's tuition for me. (Yeah, now you know I went to a state school.) Way too expensive for a midwestern college student. So I gave up on my beautiful sweater dream.

Until I started to knit. Then I found out about Dale of Norway. I still have not seen the kits for the sweaters but know that they exist. I plan to knit one, one day. I do think that if I ever ran into a kit in my daily knitting life I would have to have it. I think D would even understand. Of course he is quite understanding of my knitting to begin with.

So in preparation of eventually attaining my dream sweater I knit these. My beautiful mittens that I learned so much with. The left fits tighter than the right, same needles same yarn, different knitter tension. That would be very bad in a sweater, don't you think? I did use these mittens while shoveling out part of the driveway on Monday. First time in years that my hands were not cold the entire time I was out there.

Where was I before my ramble? Oh yeah, D will be soon getting a new sweater from me. I just could not resist. I need to take my short-of-yarn blue sweater to the yarn shop to choose a complementary color to finish it with. It is a silvery-blue color should I look for a bluey-silver color or something not even in the blue family? Now you see why I am having so much of an issue with finishing this one. I am leaning toward something out side of the blue family. What I will go in and they will no longer be carrying that type of yarn. I just need to make a decision and go with it whole heartedly.

Well y'all Happy Knitting!

Bummer

I started this sweater for D last March. I questioned my sanity at that time too. I knit happily on it for about a month or so. You know till the weather warmed up enough that a lump of wool on your lap no longer feels warm and comfortable but hot and sticky instead. I also started to suspect that I may not have bought enough wool.

So I did what any good knitter does in this situation, I put it in a bag and sent it to project purgatory. Now I feel the need to point out that a great knitter would have hauled herself to the store and bought more yarn if they had it. But that is what separates the knitters from the Knitters. It is not like I shoved a sheep in the bag with it so it could grow more yarn. Nope I waited seven months so I could be sure that they sold out of the yarn. Come to think of it, I bought all the skeins they had. I went hoping that maybe they had purchased more in the same colorway. Nada.

So what do I do now? Do I turn it into a sweater for me instead? I think I have shorter arms. Do I take out a bit on the bottom of the body and make it shorter, but the sleeves longer? Do I go online and learn how to see if anyone else has a left over skein? Do I put it back into purgatory till it learns to behave?

Yeah, I don't have an answer for it either.

Oh and I am trying to get into the witness protection program too. Not because I witnessed anything but because I have burned my finger tip again in about the same spot as last year. I think I am subconsciously trying to burn off my finger prints.

Update

I'm half way through knitting a sweater for D and I've yet to take a picture of it. But my knitting journal is up to date. Well sort of I started knitting a pair of socks and the yarn is pooling badly. The colorway is basically two colors and they are spitting between the front and back of the sock. I'm trying to figure out how to work around this. No ideas just yet.

I'm knitting swatches of Malabrigo worsted yarn to plan my next sweater for me. I tried knitting it on my standard US 8 needles then tried knitting on US 7 needles to compare the fabrics. I'm going to wash them and block them to see which one I like more.

I really need to convert the needle sizes from US sizing to metric. It is much more precise to think of things in mm instead of US.

I'm on a roll

Finished sweater with a picture to boot. Hubby is wearing if for the second time this week. Funny thing about knit items once you finally finish them they're the only thing you want to wear, even if you did not knit it. Hubby seems pretty happy about it. I think this is the same color as my car. Hmm.

I even started a new sock for him too. I think my plan to cover him in wooly goodness is moving along nicely. See the more finished items he sees the less he will notice new yarn walking in the front door with me.

What do you mean he reads this blog and is on to my plan? Well that is poor planning on my part. A distraction I need a Hubby distraction.....

Look Honey, Scones you like scones.

Note to anyone who reads this, pineapple scones are not as good as you hope they will be. Not bad just not as good as cherry scones. Next week we will try plain old apple scones. I will let you know how we feel about those. Tomorrow we will return to a proven scone taste, either blueberry or cranberry. I'm only up for experimentation one day of the week if it turns out an "meehh" product.

Ramblings

I tried out the knitting group at the library the other night. Seems to be a nice group so far. As you know I'm anti-social so this was a big thing for me. Well not big, but I did have to talk myself back into it several times.

When I get home after a day of work I really don't want to leave the house again. For food, fun or even money. Well now that last one has not been tested, I've never accepted a bribe, mostly because it has not been attempted, but that is another story.

So one of the ways I forced myself to go was to finish the audio book I was listening to in the car. turns out I really don't like the radio that much anymore so I really needed a new book. Guess where they have books....the library!

I used my knitting group time to weave in the ends of D's sweater. Yep the sweater that would not end is finally done. (I think, you never know how shifty a sweater can be till you wash it.) Pictures will be posted shortly. He seems to like it so that is good news.

I discovered an interesting side effect to having startitis. (The urge to start as many projects as you can in a short amount of time, regardless of what projects are currently on the needles.) I had a wicked case of I-want-this-doneitis. (The urge to finish something, anything so you can have a feeling of accomplishment.) When you start all your projects at the same time, none of them get your full attention and thus all seem to be with you for a longer time. This feeling sometimes actually heightens the feelings of startitis. If you can not finish anything you might as well start something else for the simple change of view it affords you. Stop messing with me startitis, you know they're working on a pill for you!

Well that is all the knitting theory I have in me tonight. Where are my needles I need to lock them up for the night.

Oh knitting my knitting

What the Hell? I thought we had a deal knitting, I love you and you love me. I'm starting to believe that we're not on the same page so to speak. I am looking at all three of you current projects. You have been knit and reknit and reknit. I'm starting to think you have separation anxiety. I will still spend time with you after you're knit up. Yes, it will be different but I will love you more for your warmth. It is OK for you to reach your full potential.

I am at the same point on D's sweater I was a week ago except now I am wiser. Why is it wisdom always comes with a price tag attached? At least my inner knitter saved me some trouble. She whispered to me that I should not completely bind off the bottom cuff till I tried the sweater on D. It is just too bad that she let me get so far with the sleeve before we tried it on him. The wisdom I obtained from the sleeve was: yes it is possible to make a weird hybrid puffy pirate sleeve while knitting a sweater. Turns out if you decrease to quickly on a sleeve it makes the sleeve look "poofy". Yep poofy, just how D described the sweater to me. "Hey honey can you make me a poofy sweater?" Yep, honey I sure can just let me try to make a normal sweater and it will come out that way. Sweater knitting this is your official warning. I will put you in time out if you poof on me again. I know I did not listen to inner knitter but this is the fifth time I've made something like you I should understand the process by now. Remember sweater I'm watching you.

Don't worry I still think you're pretty, in a manly way.

Sock knitting you're on my naughty list too. Ok you're right I expected this of you. I cast you on not really knowing what I was going to do with you. I told you we were just trying things out. It was OK if I had to rip back. But then I decided what to do with you after the third ripping. What you did not get that memo? Sorry sock knitting. Are we good now? I really think you're lovely. I like you just the way you're working up. No don't say those things about sweater, it's not "stupid", that is not going to get you more time with me. There is enough of me to go around.

Shhh don't tell the other knitting but I think your colors are especially Christmasy.

Mittens oh mittens. Just because you're my first "real" colorwork project does not mean you should try to make me grow by leaps and bounds. We can save some of my learning for the next project. Right mitten, I've been thinking about it and I'm afraid I don't understand you like I should. You know what that means right? Yep I am going to rework you yet again. I'm sorry that is just the way it has to be. You know you're not like socks people will see you more and notice that left you and right you don't quite match. They will judge you harshly for this. They will say things like "home made" and "knit wrong", and they will not mean it in a good way.

Never fear mittens I will not allow that to happen. I want you to hear only good words like "beautiful" and "wow". I promise to stop thinking of you as "bad wool", I promise to see deeper than that, you're just "misunderstood wool".

I will endeavor to try harder with all of you. You did teach me yet again that I should not knit Christmas presents. We're both way to fickle to have such a large deadline.

So knitting do we have an understanding? Are we good? Don't make me knit something else because you know I will.

Little bit of this, little bit of that

I hate sitting down to the computer getting ready to post and as soon as the screen pops up my brain empties. Happens more than I am willing to admit. What have I not talked about in a while?

Books! I finished Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Mr. Quin a while back. Loved it! I love books that have mysterious benevolent characters in them. This one is a collection of short stories that feature the same two main characters. I was pleasantly surprised in the stories. I'm not a huge fan of short stories. In this case I was not able to figure out who and why but I enjoyed the story telling.

I'm one of those people that try to figure out the endings. My Mother trained me to pick up the clues. Well, trained is not how it started, she continually frustrated me by knowing the ending all the time. How could she do that? So I begged to be let in on the secret and finally she started pointing out little clues. I'm pretty good at it now, not as good as the original but still good. Sometimes it leads to my husband's frustration so I try to be quiet. Other times I let him in on the clues too, but only if he asks. Not many things in this life are as frustrating as living with a know it all.

On a totally unrelated note I use pictures of my yarn purchases as my desktop at work. You know looking at yarn all day is a good thing for me. I find I am calmer if I can sneak a yarnie peek. The bad thing is I constantly have the urge to cast on projects at work.

I think I found a pattern for a shawl for the grey alpaca yarn I bought at Saratoga Fiber Festival this year. It is in The Knitter's Book of Wool. I wonder if the yarn will be too dark to show the pattern. It is a lovely charcoal grey. I had to ball up the yarn the other day because Gus tried to bring it to me in my sleep again. Do you think he's trying to tell me to knit faster? But he sort of mangled the yarn a bit while dragging it out of the bag. Not enough to hurt it but enough to make me go argh. So now it is all neat and tidy and ready to knit from. I currently have three projects on the needles so I don't think I will be casting on any time soon. But you know how the yarn and needles like to gang up on me.

D's sweater is moving right along. I had him try it on the other day to make sure what I had so far would work. His comment about the sweater that at this stage resembles a very short football jersey, "I think it needs to be longer". Really honey? Ya think! You know it made me laugh when he said that even though I knew something was coming.

I think it will be ready by Christmas but I don't think it will meet the record set by his first sweater. I had that one done in a month. Can you see how proud of that I am?

I will just keep on knitting, it is bound to be long enough one of these days.

Let the project wars begin

Yep my blistered hand is still healing. I would post a picture of the awesome blisters I have on my fingers but I don't know how squeamish you all are so I will choose to skip it at this time. I not in pain it just feels very awkward still, and I am oddly protective of that hand right now. Wonder why?

So my startitis has caused me to start actually casting on projects. I mean the top three projects that came to mind when the needles and yarn were in my hands. That is right three projects in two days, along with one of them still in the works.

I did manage to finish socks for D.

He says he likes them but we will judge that by how often I'm washing them. I subscribe to the theory that you always use what you like more. I know my favorite socks are always in the dirty laundry pile because as soon as they're dry they're on my feet.

Back to the project wars. I cast on my test knitting for my kilt hose from the Rambouillet yarn.

The yarn has some tightly spun/thin sections so I'm trying to figure out how that will work. Plus this is mostly test knitting now. I just want to find out how the yarn knits up and if it will really work for the project.

I started another sock. It is from the Decadent Fibers Savory Sock yarn. I just could not resist this yarn any longer. It kept calling to me, socks, socks I want to be socks. I think I'm going to do my basic sock pattern but put in cable panels down both sides of the top of the foot. Sort of like D's socks above but with a cable. Hopefully these will not take me as long, but with them calling to me all the time I will probably blow right through them. So that was the problem with D's socks they're like the person they're made for, not super chatty.

Oh and D's sweater attacked me too. It was cast on this morning. I'm grooving away. Who knew I would like knitting sweaters so much? I absolutely love the idea that in a month or so I can have a whole new sweater. Guess I'm not much of an instant gratification person, hmm? I'm trying out my new harmony needles from Knit Picks. I was waiting for them to arrive so I could start this project.

It is out of Cascade 220 "Galaxy" colorway. I am totally digging this yarn. I'm thinking this one will be done before Christmas. I'm still counting it as a Christmas present. Fair warning on that one, even if you wear it 2 or 3 times before Christmas D, I'm still wrapping it up and putting it under the tree, your surprise will be optional, your appreciation will not be optional.

I read through a pattern last night for mittens for me. I have the yarn and the needles, they're probably in a corner somewhere planning their attack on me. Seems like everything wants to be cast on. Plus I really want/need a pair of mittens.

Even Gus got in the knitting spirit today and tried to steal my yarn. What can I say everyone in the house is a yarn lover except D. He falls into the yarn wearer category, doesn't play with it as much as uses it.