Thank Goodness for Husbands

Last night, after finished Happy and in need of a cast-on fix I couldn’t decide which project to start. I got home from work and immediately started reviewing my queue and stash on Ravelry to decide what I wanted to start the most. Two hours later, when Steve got home (he was buying a radial arm saw, yeah I don’t know what it is either) I still had not made up my mind. There are just way to many things I want to make and I already have yarn for many of them. My indecision could have also been related to the fact that I have had what seems to be a head cold (or allergies) for the past few days and maybe I just wasn’t thinking straight. But, I guess I can’t really blame it all on the head congestion because many times in the past I haven’t been able to make up my mind and end up starting three or four new projects. I really don’t want to make a habit of starting doing this every time I have a cast-on attack, but I have yet to prevent it.

So, after 2 hours of deliberation I decided to let Steve pick the next project. I showed him pictures of the projects I already had yarn for and he picked his favorite one, which turned out to be Dollar and a Half Cardigan. He was even happier with his pick when I showed him the yarn I would be using.

 

Now, after reading a lot of the comments on Ravelry, I have decided that I need to do a lot of swatching before I start this sweater. It seems everyone has done something slightly different than the original pattern called for. Here are some of my options.

1. Shorten the sleeves
2. Do stockinette instead of reverse stockinette
3. Use two different needle sizes, smaller needle size for the stockinette, larger needle for lace
4. Make two cable fronts
5. knit complete body at one time up to the arm holes

So even though my hubby helped me make a decision, I still have lots of more decisions to make. Maybe my knitting friends will provide their input to help me decide, because I know hubby will have no clue on this part.

Errata…What’s that?

Errata…what’s that? Just kidding, I know what it is, but I guess I think I am too good to review the corrections to a pattern before I knit it.

As it turns out, unbeknown to me, they did make an adjustment to the number of skeins needed for the medium “Happy” sweater. Thank goodness I had my freak-out face on when I bought the yarn and bought an extra skein of every color. I do still have two full hanks left, which I plan to return to my LYS, which means I can buy more yarn. Yay! Now it is just a matter of what sweater to knit next. Decisions, Decisions.

I hope to have the finish pictures of the Happy sweater by the end of the weekend. I need to block the body before I can wear it, because it is currently way too short, but I expect it to stretch quite a bit in length.

In the mean time, here are some finished object pictures of my Central Park Hoodie. Enjoy!

Extra Yarn Needed

I am always so freaked out that I will run out of yarn for a project, so I typically spend the extra money up front and buy an extra skein for a little piece of mind. In the case of the Happy Sweater, which I started a few weeks ago, I had to purchase more than just one extra skein. I had to purchase 5, which almost doubled the 7 skeins required by the pattern for a size medium. But I am so thankful that I took the plunge and did just that.

Yesterday, as I was working along on the body of my sweater, I finished off one skein of one of the colors that was suppose to only require one skein for the entire project. I still have two full stripes of this color so I am extremely glad that purchase the extra yarn. I am also likely to finish at least one more ball of a color that only required one skein. That would mean it would have been a double whammy if I didn’t take this precaution.

Now, either I didn’t associate the colors I chose with the pattern correctly or the pattern is incorrect. Either way, I should have enough yarn for my sweater, but, if the pattern is incorrect, I am concerned for other people making this same sweater.

Opps, I almost forgot

In my effort to catch you up on all my finished objects I let one slip by. In all the knitting I have done recently I also finally finished my Mother Lode Socks.

Started: August 4, 2007
Finished: August 16, 2008 (yes over one year to complete)
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock Multi

The only reason this project took so long to complete was because I was working on so many other projects at the same time. Oh, and the fact that I had to frog the first attempt because they were too big. So technically I finished them in less than a year if you don’t count the first attempt. More information on Ravelry.

Relaxing

Sometimes weekend are just for relaxing, which is exactly what I did this past weekend. Although I had a few things planned, I decided I just needed a weekend to relax. So, Saturday morning we picked up a fire pit  and a new video game and I spent the rest of the weekend knitting, reading, watching TV, playing video games, and enjoying some time with nature.

Saturday, I spent the majority of the day knitting outside with nature. The only bad thing about knitting in and around nature is that you will likely have unexpected and uninvited guests who try to claim a chair, a cake of yarn and even a knitting bag for themselves, which is exactly what happened. As I was knitting along Saturday afternoon, I went to grab another ball of yarn and found a little spider had joined me. As I went to shue it from the yarn it tried to take up residence in my knitting bag, which really freaked me out because I really didn’t want a family of spiders spinning their webs around my yarn. Eventually, the spider was set free to find some other spot to occupy, which made me much happier.

Steve couldn’t handle all the peace and quiet and he ended up watching a movie on his iPod. I could sit and stare into the fire for hours on end, but that was all too primitive for my hubby. He must have technology.

 

Sunday was spent doing much of the same.

Slacker

I know I have been a major slacker the last few weeks when it comes to my blog, and reading blogs too for that matter. I have been knitting, which is way more fun that sitting in front of a computer. Plus, I haven’t had anything fun to talk about other than my knitting. Yes, I lead probably one of the most boring lives you can imagine. I get up go to work, come home, sometimes workout, and then watch TV and knit. Nothing very exciting about that. But I like my life so I guess that is all that matters. I just don’t want to bore you to tears with my extremely mundane life.

So on to the fun stuff, the knitting. I finished my Central Park Hoodie. Well, technically it isn’t finished yet, because I still have to find the perfect buttons, but the knitting part is done. I don’t have any finished pictures yet, because I am hoping to get the buttons sewn on first.

I also finished these three Knitting for Hire projects. You can find more information on my Ravelry Page

Back in June I made my first Baby Surprise Jacket, but forgot to take pictures of it before giving it to the new mother. I recently went to see the family and had to take some pictures of the sweater. It was still too big for the new baby.

I finally took some pictures of the Eye of Partridge Shawl and the Kitty Pi, but both of these projects are now hibernating.

The Kitty Pi was done with Knit Picks Wool of the Andes double stranded, but I don’t know if I really liked how it was turning out, so I started a second one single stranded, which is also hibernating.

For a long time, basically since I completed this sweater, I have wanted to shorten it because it came out much longer than I thought it would.

And I finally did it. I should take a new picture showing the difference in length, but it has been way to hot to put it on, even for a minute to take the picture. Here are some pictures showing my progress during the shortening process.

It fits much nicer now, and I might actually wear it more than once this winter.

I have also started this sweater.

But I am using different colors. Here is a picture of part of the first sleeve. I love the detail the stitch pattern makes.

Another project that had been hibernating for a long time is finally back in progress and that is the Purple Goodness socks. I decided to do plain stockinette socks with this yarn, mostly because I wanted a very simple project to work on.

And I think that brings up just about up to date with all my knitting projects. Maybe in the coming weeks I will have some interesting things to share with you, something that won’t bore you to death.

Peacocks - Toe-up Socks

I know it has been a really long time since I last posted. Life has been busy this summer and I have been working on writing the pattern for these.

I hope you enjoy this pattern. Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Here are a few more pictures.

Sweaters for Babies

I have received word that the sweaters for Taylor and Chace have arrived at there destination and they are too big, which is actually a relief. When my sister told me nearly 2 months ago that they were wearing 24-month clothes I got worried because the sweaters I was making were only slightly larger than 24 months. Me not being a mother, I had no clue how fast children grow, I have only hear people make comments about how quick they grow. Therefore, in my mind I think 2 months is an awful long time and they might be wearing two sizes larger by the time the sweaters arrived. But thankfully they can still grow into them. I have no pictures because the kids were not being cooperative when my mom put the sweaters on them so she didn’t get any pictures. I will be visiting them in a few weeks and will be sure to take some pictures. I can only hope that they don’t grow out of them by then.

 

Sunday Morning Funnies

Yesterday morning Steve and I were sitting down to watch a few TV programs we recorded during the week. I had already made my coffee and I was waiting for him. He was determining if he wanted to make some crepes or if he would just have some cereal. He opted for the quick route and poured a bowl of cereal. Only it wasn’t your ordinary bowl of cereal, here is what he had.

 

Yep, that is a mixing bowl, and it isn’t even the smallest one. My guess is he had at least three to four bowls of cereal in there. Now if my husband was a three hundred pound man I might expect this size bowl of cereal, but Steve has almost no fat on him, but boy can he eat.

He first claimed that when he added the bananas to a small bowl it would over flow, so he had to use the larger bowl. So I suggested that he put less cereal in the bowl if he is going to add bananas. Then he came back with the fact that this cereal wasn’t Total brand cereal so he had to eat four bowls to get the same vitamins and minerals that are in one bowl of Total. Any way you look at it I thought he was nuts, but he definitely made me laugh.

 

Maryland Sheep and Wool

I am so excited to say that I will be attending Maryland Sheep and Wool this year. Last year I learned about the event the week before it happened and didn’t realize it was so close to my mom’s house, only about 40 minutes away. And over the last few weeks, my mom and I have been talking about when I was going to come for another visit and after surfing over to the Northwest Airlines website and seeing the very low airfares we decided now was the time to book and what better time than during the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.

I checked out the Festival website and it looks like a lot of spinning stuff and I am sort of concerned (not really), but I am not a spinner.  So what is a girl on a yarn budget, who doesn’t spin, to do at this festival? I would suspect that it would be a ton of fun to meet other knitters and I am sure I will find something that interests me, but if you have attended this event before I would love to know what there is to do, because I like to be prepared.

I can’t wait to go.