Here I Come!!!

I just worked it out with the Man to take the weekend off for Sock Summit in August. !!! I'll be heading down to Portland solo (as in sans baby, sans hubby) to have some alone time with a bajillion crazy knitters. That's 2 WHOLE NIGHTS to do nothing but knit and visit with friends. I've even got a place to stay. I'm not registered for classes since I won't be exclusively in town for Sock Summit but I'm excited to have my very own schedule for at least one day. The Man is not totally happy with this arrangement but since his band is probably going on tour for nine days this Fall and I'm taking the Little One to visit family in Kansas for six days I should get at least a couple of days off, don't you think? I do. Now, what socks will I bring to knit?

(Not)Lush & Lacy Cardigan

As promised, my #7 sweater. The Lush & Lacy Cardigan by SweaterBabe. The pattern calls for an angora blend yarn but I wanted a nice summery cardigan so I used Samoa which is a 50/50 cotton acrylic blend. I was pleasantly surprised by this yarn, it didn't hurt my hands and felt nice and sproingy without actually being sproingy and it has beautiful stitch definition. This one knits up quick on #8 needles at 4 sts to the inch, hence my one week cardigan. I'm contemplating getting more of this yarn out of the sale bin at the shop before there's not a sweater quantity left.

Three Day Weekend

I had an unprecedented three day weekend over the 4th of July. !!! I just recently decided to decrease the hours I work from home so I don't go ballistic, hop in my car, and head for the border blaring AC/DC at full volume. Seriously, I've thought about it. It was great to have a breather from the 47+ hour weeks I've been trying to power through. So what did I do? Knit, duh. Finished the Butternut Scarf, a second pair of charity mittens, and sweater #7. I need a little help taking the photos so pictures will be posted soon-ish. I've already chosen #8 but want to finish up the baby sweater I'm working on and the first half of my stole before casting on.

We didn't do anything for the 4th. It has to be the worst holiday ever for moms with babies. As soon as it gets dark every idiot on the block sets off firecrackers in the street and starts yelling "Whoooooooo!" underneath the windows. Yeah. Not so baby friendly. The Little One was amazing and slept through all but the loudest bangs and then settled right down again. I don't even know why I tried to go to sleep before midnight since every bang woke me right up again. That was wasted knitting time for sure.

6 in 6

Friday night I finished up my sixth sweater in six months. Whoo! I'm super happy with it even though I basically knit it twice. Much better the second time around.

Pattern: Button Me Up Pullover
Yarn: Eco + in Vandyke Brown
Needles: #9 Harmony
Mods: I got a gauge of 4 st to the inch instead of 3.75 so I cast on for zero ease. Sleeves are my usual 15 inches and I knit the body 3/4 inch longer. I also did 2.5 inches of ribbing at the bottom of the sweater instead of 5 inches.
This is a good basic sweater and I really really like the way it fits.

The little one turned six months old this past week. !!! Time has flown. I'm getting ready for her to just get up and walk around and start speaking in sentences, she's growing so quickly!

Catch Up

I've been doing stuff, really I have. This last weekend I made an AWESOME recipe from one of my first vegetarian cookbooks. A strawberry tart! Yum! The Man declared that it "tastes like what cheesecake should taste like, but doesn't." Super yummy and super easy. I'm a huge fan of almond & flour crusts, they're kind of like shortbread. I baked the crust one evening and did the filling and strawberries the next morning and then left it to chill. I even glazed the thing with apricot glaze so it's tangy and sweet and rich from the cream cheese layer. Ahh...everything I want in a summer dessert.


I've also been knitting a little lace. Well, not so little. It's the Icicle Dream Stole from the 2008 Winter Twist Collective. So far, so good. I'm on the third chart of four on the first half of the stole. (You knit the two halves separately and then graft them together.) The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy in the color Midnight Derby. We got a few very darkish skeins in at the shop and I just had to knit something with the last couple. The pattern calls for a laceweight but I'm not such a fan, hence a sock-yarn stole. I'm excited to see the end product, it's my largest lace project so far.


And finally...
This is what I'm doing right now. Eating some watermelon and knitting the body of my sweater, again. That small disaster from the other day? Yeah, this is it. After ripping out the ribbing I decided to try it on again to see how much longer I wanted to knit it. I decided it was a bit too snug. :: sigh::
So I cast on and just started knitting the dang thing over, directly from the frogged sweater. The man came in while I started this and looked really confused. "Why are you knitting that sweater into the same sweater?" I'm pretty sure daggers flew. "For fun." A couple days later and I've got a little over 13 inches reknit and should still be able to finish up by the end of the month. Probably to the detriment of my mom's birthday gift (her birthday was last Saturday). Sorry, mom!

Petite Disaster

I wish I had taken pictures last night. Anyhoo, I was knitting along on my sweater and getting the yoke finished and binding off. This seemed like an opportune time to try it on so I did. It's a little snug but nothing I don't think blocking won't help. I'm pulling down on the hem thinking that it's a tad too short when there it is - a hole! Not just dropped stitches but SNIPPED stitches. How the hell did that happen!? I pull off the sweater, run over to my knitting bag, and throw a couple of stitch markers into those dropping stitches. Yikes! After a few moments of pulling my hair I decide that it's not really a bad thing. I'll just rip back the ribbing (the whole was right in the middle of the ribbing) knit a few more inches of stockinette to lengthen the sweater and then ribbing and bind off. Two hours later the stitches were back on the needle ready to go and I went to bed. So much for my nightly knitting time. I also decided that I want to try the sewn bind off that is supposedly uber-stretchy that Elizabeth Zimmermann uses. Cool beans, a new technique after all that trauma.

PS I probably would have thrown the stupid sweater across the room and had a crying fit if it hadn't only been a week on the needles. I'll still make my 6 sweaters in 6 months deadline.

Exhausted much?

I'm super tired today. Wanna know why? I sure would. I stayed up a little later than usual last night, but not too late. I just had to join the sleeves to the body of the sweater I'm working on before I put it down for the night. It's sunny out, so it's definitely not the weather making me feel sluggish and I haven't done any crazy partying or amphetamine use that I can recall. Hmm. I really feel like I just need a solid 12 to 14 hours of good, deep sleep to expel this perpetual tiredness. Unfortunately that is nowhere in my future since I'm still working the crazy 47-ish hours a week schedule that I've been on since May. Oh well, knitting, socializing, and a beer should definitely improve my outlook for the week.