Sweater Troubles

After diligently swatching, I began the first sleeve of my sweater a day or so ago. I got it all cast on and got the cuff all done and then began on the cable pattern that circles the sleeve just above the wrist and discovered a problem with the pattern. As in: it's wrong. Now I was able to go and figure out the proper way to make the patterning work (they just had some directions reversed) and onward I went.

So as of now here is where I am with the sweater: About 10 inches of sleeve#1 done. While I am happy with it overall there is one problem. It is too small. I mean it fits just fine, but a little too close. I also discovered that my gauge swatch is a lying liar and I am getting more stitches per inch than the swatch said I would. So I decided to use my favorite sweater as a template and here is the new sleeve laid over the sleeve of my favorite:So, since I really want to wear this sweater and not go through all of this work just to have it sit on a shelf off to the frog pond it goes. I need to find a bigger set of needles (probably have them somewhere) and I also need to fine a stretchier cast on than a knitted cast on since it is tightest at that point. So little bit of a bummer but I want it to be just right.

February Spinning Goal

I have just realized we are more than halfway through february and I don't have a spinning goal yet...so since my time is short and my shoulder is killing me for some unknown reason my goal for this month will be a very modest 1/2 ounce batt that I made out of scraps:I will spin it on a drop spindle, hopefully that counts for something right?

I hope to have more spinning this month, and will add to my goals if I see an opening.
For now I am really into the knitting again and am working on my sweater! Yippee!

First Hat...

...for me that is. Of all of the knitting I have done in the 5 years that I have been knitting and of all of the hats I have made I have never made a hat for myself. Until now. When visiting the Grand Opening of Yellow House Yarns Andrew bought himself a skein of Cascade Chunky Baby Alpaca to make a hat. This stuff is SUPER soft and I had to have one for myself so I got me a skein and once I finished that DNA Scarf and the Cowl I was working on I made this hat. It only took a few hours, even with the cabling. I Love it. It is excruciatingly soft and when wearing it, you forget it's on because it is so soft and light. It is warm without overheating you. In all, I picked the perfect yarn (actually, I must give credit to Andrew on this one, it was his idea first) and made a very nice Snappy Hat.

Quick Knit

I just whipped up a quick cowl to test a pattern for a fellow Raveler.

It took about 3-4 hours tops and Abby seems to like it. Here she is wearing it doubled. It was HUGE on me and did not serve as a cowl well but makes a wonderful little shoulder warmer (unstretched it was 30inches around). Now I think I shall go make a hat.

DNA

This:
is reason for my lack of posting (or laundry or anything else for that matter). I have been knitting like mad on a scarf I was commissioned to make for an Etsy customer. I was thrilled to be commissioned and had fun making it but I confess I think I undersold my services as I underestimated how long it would take me to knit the cable pattern for 5 + feet. It was fun at first but I had just finished my sweater spinning and was waiting for the wool to dry when I got the commission, so rather than casting on my sweater right away I needed to finish (the deadline to get it to her was Feb 14th and that is the delivery date, not the finish date) in a hurry. I think I knit approximately 5-9 inches per day while doing it. At about the halfway point I went to the grand opening of Yellow House Yarns and found the perfect yarn to make a skirt and now I have two projects I am dying to start and this one that I HAVE to finish.But I stuck with it and met my goal and got the scarf finished yesterday and out in the mail today. Thank you to Paypal for their super easy invoicing!
The pattern is Dr. Montville's Double Helix Seaman Scarf. A scarf with a Double Helix DNA strand done in cabling. Very cool, especially for those geek/biology sorts who are into that sorta thing (don't worry I am one of them...not knocking people here).
And hey, the slide-in black background for my light box is pretty snazzy no?

Yup....

...I'm still here. Jut knitting. A lot. Details to follow. Someday.

Timmy The Viking

Here is the birthday boy in his new hat. Hope he likes it. Happy birthday Timmy!

Skein one done!

I took the rest of Thursday off of spinning (it was bedtime anyway) and most of Friday was spent retaking photo's of my for sale items in my Etsy shop. I got the yarns done and today I hope to get the rest reshot. The difference is amazing for example:

before and after:

and another before and after:

And finally last night before bed I finished plying the first skein of my sweater yarn:

Obviously this was just a quick snap of it...I will take better looking pictures after I get the yarn set and dry and have the light box set up again.

Challenge Met!

Look LOOK! I got my spinning done!I am so excited to have finished the singles I have been spinning for I don't remember exactly how long now...A while back Brian brought me home some of this: and I decided that it was destined to become my very first adult size sweater, made for me (ok so maybe I am not adult sized, but still I am bigger than a 4year old). I had to spin the yarn first though. Then Janel over at Spindlicity posted her destash challenge and I decided to participate. For the purpose of the challenge I only entered what I had not spun yet (duh) - the above unspun roving and this picture here of that very roving all done:

The five other bobbins were full before the challenge. So now I have met my challenge and I am ready to start plying (maybe tomorrow cuz I spun for like 3 hours today and my back is killing me). I am so excited about this yarn (can you tell? no? ur not paying attention...) and I am very excited to start the sweater...Here is a picture:

The patterin is in the Winter 2009 issue of Spin Off Magazine by Interweave Press. I am sure they have back issues.
But...first the plying, then setting, then swatching...maybe. If I am in the mood.

Vikings ahoy!

I finally finished the hat I have been working on for my brother in law. I can't wait to give it to him! Thank you so much to my reluctant model. He must love me a lot to let me post a pic of him wearing it on the internet for everyone to see.

Quiet

It's all quite in the house today...My babies are up for a visit with Grandma and Grandpa. It was so nice to sleep in! I have been doing a bit of housework and today I am going to do some crafting until I go to a grown up birthday party this afternoon. I might even stay up past my bedtime again since I have no children to wake me up in the morning.
I should probably be using this time to get organized, and maybe I will a little but for now I am going to sit down with my tea and my knitting and try to get some uninterrupted television watching done...oh, there goes the tea kettle whistling. I hope you all enjoy your Saturday as much as I intend to enjoy mine.

Starting

Starting the year off with a few things.

First is a new haircut...The before pic here did not come out all that great and you can't really see how long my hair was - she had already started cutting by the time I remembered to take a pic but here it is just the same:
and the after:

Overall she took off about 8 inches and I was really happy with it...If only it looked this nice every day...I have yet to duplicate the smooth look I left the salon with as my hair curls when it is wet and my attempts to tame it just give me frizzy head.

Second is that Brian and I are trying to eat better. Not necessarily diet or have a resolution, but just trying to eat better overall. Maybe take a cue from Jacob - On our way to the store the other day I had to get gas and the gas station happens to be right next to McDonald's. The conversation went something like this:
Jacob: "Can I have a snack?"
Me: "We can get a snack when we get to the store."
Jacob: "Well, maybe we can have a snack at McDonald's!"
Me: "No, I said we can get a snack at the store, besides, McDonald's is not a healthy snack, and I want you to have a healthy snack."
Jacob: "I don't want a healthy snack - maybe I could just have some broccoli instead."
Me: "Weeelll, I guess so, if you are good."
And I'll be damned if he didn't carry that 'little tree' around the store with him, hold it in the car seat on the way home, and eat some of it the second it was washed when we got home. Who wants healthy snacks anyway?

And thirdly I am starting my spinning challenge. The challenge is to spin one project from my stash each month. My January goal is to finish the singles for my sweater. Here is the remaining wool left to be spun:

That is already split out into equal amounts so as to have three skeins of three ply yarn. I have already spun 5.25 bobbins full and have this 3.75 left - just under 7 ounces left to spin. I would ideally like to spin all of the singles as well as get all of the plying done, but I am trying to be realistic about what I am likely to be able to accomplish...I suppose if I was spinning now instead of posting or making breakfast or doing laundry I could do it...then there are all of the damn free games available on my new Android phone and they just keep me so busy ;)

On that note I think I will go start a load of laundry, then make breakfast for the kids and perhaps sit down to spin.

Finishing

Today I am trying to get myself all ready to start the new year fresh. Yesterday I put away Christmas...took down the tree, put away all ornaments, decorations and lights. This morning I have begun with housework and hope to spend my afternoon finishing some long set aside crafts. I will not bore you with the housework as it probably just the same as yours (boring and hateful and never done for more than a minute). However I will share with you some of the things I have been Finishing.

First was a pair of blankets that I made and gifted to my husband's Aunt and Uncle for Christmas. I did not have the presence of mind to photograph them but they were of polar fleece and they were the cut and tie the fringe kind. Both of them were the same paisley pattern but one was white on black and the other was black on white. They both seemed happy with them.

Next was the light box I started months ago in order to get more professional looking photo's for the items I list in my Etsy shop.

I finished a stuffed dog that was made out of a pair of socks:

Thanks Alexis! you bring me a pair of socks you like the look of and I'll make you one of your own! (think dollar store...that is where I got this pair).

I am currently trying to finish up Abby's hippo,

her pair of mittens (one down, one to go)
and a pair of socks for me...started over a year ago...
I also started and finished a project a couple of days ago...I have been in desperate need of knitting needle organization. I used to have them in a bag that I would have to dump out to get to the set I needed. I have been meaning to do this for some time and when I found myself browsing on etsy for one to buy I thought, 'This is ridiculous, I can make one myself out of my stash and not spend a penny.' And so I did. All materials were scraps from my stash, including the batting and the ribbon. The part that took the longest was making the binding.
I am not sure what else I will be able to manage today but if I get more done, I'll be sure to post it!

Mini's

Just a fly by post of a couple of ornaments I made for Christmas:
I realized that I posted these to FB but neglected to put them on my blog, so here they are. Now I am off to dig us out from under the used wrapping paper...

Another test...lets see if the pics come through

This is a test of my mobile blogging...we shall see if it works.

Busy Little Mommy

I haven't been posting because I am trying to get caught up...I hate the way Christmas hits you in the face like a ton of bricks three seconds after you take your last bite of pumpkin pie. The commercial outfits don't help either since I have begun noticing Christmas decorations alongside the Halloween shit.
Anyway It took 3 days to get my house back to square one after hosting the big dinner, which was wonderful by the way. Brian did most of the cooking and I did most of the cleaning. This year he made a cranberry sauce from scratch using a bottle of our homemade cranberry wine, it was VERY good, as was everything else.
Since then I have been trying to wrap my head around all of the crafting I need to finish before Christmas...The more I think about it the longer my list gets and the more the panic sets in. Last year I told myself I was going to start in January and do a little all year long...yeah well, notsomuch. So maybe I'll try again this coming year, but for now it's the Christmas Crafter's Crunch Time again...so no pics yet but I am working on lots of stuff and I can't really tell you about them yet either since they are gifts and I think at least one of the recipients reads my blog.
So, I am off to go warp the loom and hope to hell sample #2 turns out like I want cuz #1 was awful.

Snow Day

Yesterday we got dumped on ... a bit in the morning - enough to get outside after breakfast, run around in the backyard and make a snow man. This is Abby's first real experience with snow, and probably the first one Jake will remember. They both ate snow, made snow angels, and of course make the snow man with Mommy. I had fun and wasn't too terribly cold since it was just above freezing while we were outside.

By the time naps were over the snow man had warmed up enough to tip over. But shortly after that it started snowing again and hadn't stopped when we went to bed around 11 last night.

This is what our backyard looks like today:

You can see that there is about 6 inches of snow on the table and just beyond that you can see the snow man 'corpse.'

The kids really want to go out and play in the snow again but they don't understand that it's too cold...currently our thermometer reads 16 F so it will have to warm up a little before they can go out...unfortunately it's not supposed to get much warmer throughout the day (or tomorrow for that matter).

The Little Things

Last night the wind was blustering and blowing and causing the power to flicker. I personally love windy days with swirling leaves out the window...as long as I am warm. I thought, gee it might be fun if we lost power for just a little while. Sure enough the power blinked out around 10ish or so. The kids were already in bed so no fuss on that end of things and Brian and I lit a few candles and played a game of Cribbage and headed to bed. The alarm thing wasn't a problem since, like almost everyone else in a developed country, we have cell phones (though we have no actual coverage at our home and have to use our WiFi in order to make calls). However I did start to miss a few of the little things, like heat, and the ability to cook food. I am certain that when our stove needs replacing we will be upgrading to a gas stove and that will no longer be an issue but heating a house so large will be a different story, especially since I have no clue how to make my gas fireplace work without flipping the switch on the wall. I am sure there is a way and maybe this will be motivation to figure it out.
Anyway it got me thinking about how much of a pain in the ass it would be to go on with modern daily life without power. If we were thinking long term here there are several things: forget the tv and computers that is just extra but the basics such as heat and cooking would require a gas stove and a wood burning fireplace (or at least any easy way to light my gas one). The refrigerator would work too keep things cool for only so long, however I guess I could buy blocks of ice to keep in there. I would have to get out my old, non portable phone. The fish tank would have to go. Dishes would be done by hand and hot water would be a major challenge. I do have a gas BBQ that I could use for cooking and heating water (though the process would be slow as any sane person knows this can't be used indoors). Washing our clothes would be a much more challenging process as well, but could be achieved.
Anyway you get the picture its all 1800's and stuff but really it makes sense why people had to work so hard from sun up to sun down just to get the 'little things' taken care of.
Our power popped back on around 8 this morning and I was very happy to feel the heat conveniently blowing out of the floor vents and was able to plug the computer back in and re-connect. I think I'll do a little more to be prepared for future outages that may last longer than a few hours.

A good idea. I think I'll steal it.

I am an avid Yarn Harlot reader and back at the beginning of the year she got her stuff together and made her own sock club. The idea is that she has tons of sock yarns and lots of sock patterns in mind to go with the yarn, so she tossed the yarn and the pattern in a zip top bag and put them all on a shelf to grab at random once per month so at the end of the year she has a lighter stash and 12 pairs of socks. You can read about it here.
Janel over at Spindlicity thought this was a good idea and has decided to do it with unspun fiber - her link is here.
I thought Stephanie's (Yarn Harlot) idea was a great one and liked that Janel was doing it with fiber so I have decided to get on board with the idea, however for now I am sticking to projects already begun so that I can clear up some space in my craft room. I have all of my projects in their own baggies already with a wide range of sizes (some are in sandwich bags, some are in comforter bags) and styles (spinning, knitting, quilting, etc.) to choose from. I have many more than 12 but plan on making at least 2 or 3 of them into Christmas gifts for this year.
If I finish all of my already started projects I will clear at least 3 cubic feet of space (this is a lot considering it's in a closet, and is made up of stuff that can be compacted pretty well). So...here is to a year (+ 2 months) of FINISHING things.