The Biggest Stash Ever…

I thought I had a lot of yarn. Check out this yarn stash.

Knit, Knit, Knit

Sorry no pictures today, Flickr was down when I tried to upload them at lunch. Bummer.

I have been knitting a lot and I am finally making some progress on the knitted top with cable, you know the one that I kept having to frog because I wasn’t using the right needles. I am nearly finished with the back, I just have the mock neck to complete. Hopefully the front will go quickly and I will have a new summer sweater to wear in a week or so.

I have also been knitting on Green Gable. I am at the point where I have to knit, knit, knit the body. I added a few extra decreases for the waist because when I tried it on it seemed to big, I just hope it isn’t too small. I am also planning to add a few increases for the hips once I get to my waist. This sweater should be finished in the next few weeks as well.

The Berry Bliss socks are also coming along, after doing some frogging that is. I thought the pattern was simple enough to knit in public, but I guess not. I had to frog back about two inches because somehow I forgot a yarn over or something and didn’t have the right number of stitches. I have fixed the mistake and am now working on the cuff ribbing for sock #1. I haven’t done the short-row heel on sock #2, but hopefully that will be done by the end of the week.

I so want to start some new projects, but I think I will focus on these three until they are complete. Next on my to do list will be Tomato, Wicked, the Icarus Shawl, and another pair of socks.

Frogging..

I am either a complete bonehead, or I am just not meant to make this sweater. Here is a picture before the first frogging session. I knitted this up on US size 6 needles, only to realize after I knitted a complete ball that they should have been 6 mm needles not size 6. Can you say DOPE!

 

I ripped the entire thing out and started over. I was working on this project yesterday at lunch time while I watched a movie. When I had enough ribbing I just kept right on knitting in stockinette. Knitting, Knitting and more knitting. Last night I was just about finished with the first ball of yarn when it dawned on me that I didn’t change needle size to the larger needle after the rib. DUH!

So it was frogged again. I left the ribbing in and just picked up the stitches, but because this yarn is so furry it was almost more difficult to pick up the stitches then it would have been to rip it out to the beginning and start over. I thought about doing just that, but I had a horrible fear that I would forget to change the needle again and decided just to suck it up and deal with it. Hopefully the front of this sweater won’t give me as much trouble.

Security Alarm

There are some disadvantages to being one of the top ranking employees in the company and only living a little over a mile from the office. One being, you are the first person called when the security alarm is tripped at the office, which is exactly what happened last night.

I was following my normal schedule and was in bed at 9:00 pm and asleep there soon after, but at a few minutes after 10:00 pm I was jolted from my sleep when the phone rang. You know how it is went you are startled awake, I was groggy and not that coherent, but I answered the phone to find out that the security alarm had been tripped at the office and the police were on their way over there. And of course they wanted me to be there as well.

So I had to get dressed and shot over there as quickly as I could. Before I got off the phone with them they asked me what type of car I would be driving so they could tell the police. In my sleep walking state I told them the make and color of my car, but had forgotten that my car was in the shop for body repairs and I would be driving the rental. Unfortunately I didn’t realize my mistake until Steve reminded me of that fact after I got off the phone. I thought oh great I am going to get there and the police are going to think I am the burglar.

Anyway, I jumped in the car and start towards work. Opps, I forgot the keys to the building, and I guess I will need those, so I had to turn around and go back. When I finally got there 10 minutes later I was fairly certain that the people in the building where the cleaning crew, but not being 100 percent certain I decided that I wasn’t going to enter the building alone. I called the security monitoring company back and let them know I was at the building and I wasn’t driving my car. I also wanted to find out when the police would arrive. They assured me the police would arrive any minute. So I waited, and waited and waited, for like 30 minutes.

At that point, I was getting frustrated because I really wanted to go back to bed. I made another call to the security company and they called the police department to see what was taking so long. Come to find out in the 10 minutes it had taken me to get to the building they had come and gone. They said they would send someone out again because according to the security company the alarm was still going off.

Needless to say, it took another 10 minutes for the police to show up and just as we were getting out of the car to go in the cleaning crew exited the building.

So all was good, but I lost about 2 hours of sleep, because even though I got back to my bed within an hour of being rudely woken up, I was still coming down from that adrenaline rush that happens when you are startled awake unexpectantly.

Stockinette Knitting

Why is it that so many knitters share their dislike for plain stockinette knitting or purling? I have heard knitters complain that they are sick of the project they are working on because it is so boring, but then those same knitters complain because their current project is so complicated that they continue to make mistakes and ultimately have to frog part of their work. I have to ask are these knitters truly in the knitting club?

I personally find any type of knitting whether it is stockinette stitch, knitting stockinette stitch in the round (knitting every row), purling, or complicated lace work a complete joy. In fact, I welcome the simple projects when I would like to do something else in conjunction with my knitting, such as watch TV or my recent fascination of reading (I am still very new at this and currently trying to knit and read at the same time is rather slow, but at least I am participating in two of my passions at the same time.)

So why is it that other knitters tend to complain about this? I guess it will remain a mystery to me.

This week I have been working on Green Gable, Strawberry & Lime Socks, and Berry Bliss Socks. Here are my progress pictures.

First Strawberry & Lime Socks, when I originally posted this project on Ravelry I had started doing the leg of one of the socks in stockinette stitch, but have since frogged it back and as you can see have converted the leg to a 2×2 rib. I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough yarn to make the leg as long as I wished so by converting it to 2×2 rib I could ultimately fold over the cuff if I so desired. As it turned out the yarn went a lot further than I had initially expected. I have just a few more inches to go on the second sock and this pair will be ready to wear.

Green Gable is also coming along nicely. This is the first time I have knitted a top down sweater in the round so it has been quite an experience. I had to start this project twice because the first time I wasn’t paying attention and on row 3 I forgot a yarn over so I just decided to start over. Then I ended up having to frog about 8 rows of the lace pattern because somehow I got off track and did the wrong pattern row and the lace looking like it was making stripes, which I didn’t like so I ripped it back. Then when I got to the arm holes I decided to try it on, which is the coolest thing about knitting a sweater in one piece. Having tried it on I discovered that the arm holes would be a little bit tight, but considering that the yarn was cotton I thought it might stretch a bit, so I proceeded. I completed 4 more rows and tried it on again, and yes in fact the arm holes where going to be too tight so instead of ending up with a sweater that I hated and never wore I ripped it back and added an additional increase. I haven’t tried it on again yet (that will come tonight), but I think it will fit much better.

In the past week or so I have also put a few more rows in on the Berry Bliss Socks that I started just before my wedding. I got this yarn from Miranda from knitting club, she hand dyed it and I love how the colors are knitting up.

I don’t believe I have posted any pictures of this project here on my blog, but they have been posted to Ravelry, which by the way I absolutely love. I still have a number of projects to add, but I have entered my most recent finished objects.

Here is also a picture of the socks I created for the Hill Country Sock Pattern Contest. This project was a lot of fun and I look forward to creating more sock patterns in the near future, because I do have yarn for about 30 more pairs of socks. Yikes, I had better get knitting.

For those of you who are already enjoying the fun on Ravelry my user name is BloomingKnitter, stop by and see me sometime.