Half-Finished projects

I’ve got a lot of stuff languishing on the needles at the moment, all secondary to the Cardigan. I like the cardigan a lot, but I’m a little tired of the repetition of the lace pattern. I’m glad I’m not tired of the yarn, because then I would have very little incentive to knit it, but I love the Andean Silk, and therefore do not mind it. I’m actually a little more enthusiastic now because I had to rip out my v-neck and armhole decreases and now I have to knit back up to where I was. Something went wrong because I wasn’t paying enough attention, but now I’m counting carefully and it should work out. Hooray!

I still have Pomatomus on my needles. I ran out of the kool-aid dyed yarn and started knitting with the “Bare” white, which I plan to dye after I finish the sock. It’s very clever, but my time has been spent with the sweater, so the second sock is not much farther along.

Also, Monkey. I don’t know what I’m going to do about that. I love the pattern, and it looks great in that yarn, but I might have to put the yarn down for something else (ie. smaller socks) because it simply isn’t going to work unless I get a whole other skein that’s the same-ish colorway. O_o

And of course, the wristies. Since it’s gotten warmer I haven’t been as enthused about knitting these, but I pick them up when I need something that’s straight stockinette. They’re coming slowly.

I also started working on the cuff of a sock with my own pattern attached– I charted one of the block patterns from the Blanket of Doom and am translating it to round knitting. It’s sitting on my desk, looking pretty, but not doing much. The yarn might not be right for lace and cables.

And that’s that. I’m a bit stressed from school now, and I should be working on a Chemistry lab right now… ergh. I will, however, make it through the year intact.

More Dollar and a Half

WIP!

It’s so beautiful and soft and lovely! I love it.

The two fronts I’m knitting at the same time (from different balls):

And the cable is so pretty!

Also, from my FABULOUS Lime&Violet swap pal, I got fiber, tea, yarn, her handspun, perfume, a bath bomb, and adorable notecards. I just wanted to give a little shout to her because she was amazing and totally spoiled me.

I want to knit with the purple/green (tencel/merino) RIGHT NOW.

And last but not least, one finished felted Swat Team Kitty, currently residing on top of J’s computer:

Blanket of Doom: finally finished!

Begun: February, 2006.
Finished: March, 2007.
Yarn: Lion Brand Chenille, Thick and Quick (quantity unknown)
Needles: 10.5 Susan Bates circulars (too short).
Pattern: my own NONE.

There is no rhyme nor reason to this blanket. I cast on 300 stitches, realized it would be 8 feet wide (and 11 feet long) and knit sideways. I knit the blocks separately and sewed them in (silly choice). I bound off 200 stitches. It’s organic shaped. I got to play with lots of new stitches and fun colors and show the boyfriend how much I loved him. Next he gets a sweater; it’s less insane.

I am a crazy person.

In its natural habitat…

Stealth Photographing

Not really, I guess… during the show I didn’t have time to find our camera and take pictures of the $1.50, so I used M as she took pictures of the cast and held up my knitting a lot. She liked pictures of me knitting. O_o

=D

There’s me, my sister, and another girl in the cast. Oh, and the sweater, approximately 15″ along.

Teehee. Fun show. Fun sweater.

Remind me to show off my spinning, too, which has improved. Pre-drafting helps a lot. Yay!

Dollar 1/2

My Dollar and a Half Cardigan is the best! Squee! The back is about 11″ along now: at 18 1/2″ I can start shaping for the arms. It’s so soft and lovely. I’m worried that it will be all scrunchy because it is alternating knit/lace and purl stripes, but I still love it. It’s gray. I’d have pictures, but I’ve been working on it during rehearsals and stuff. Actually, the best picture I have is as follows:

I’m suited up for battle here. Just work with it. =P

PS. The play is Thursday at 7, Friday and Saturday at 8.  If you really want to come, email me.

Ups and Downs

Good parts this week:

Legwarmers finished (maybe). Have to get S to try them on.

Second Pomatomus sock started during rehearsal today, which fit splendidly with Project Spectrum for this month (green, pink, yellow). I’m going to be working on a gray sweater soon, so there I go breaking it again, but I love the inspiration it provides. Plus, what could be more perfect for the spring?

More work on the Qiviut wrist-warmers.

THEN! OMGz0rz. My swap partner from the Lime & Violet yarn pr0n swap sent me the most beautiful fiber! Not yarn, fiber! She also included a drop spindle, having picked up on the fact that I didn’t spin, but might want to learn soon. So I’ve spent the last two days figuring out how it works, and I have my first mini skein, plied on itself (Navajo plied?), sitting here. I keep skeining and and unskeining it and it’s great. It’s all lumpy and crazy and uneven and unattractive, but I do love it!

From handspun

Lookit my pictures. =D I’m excited.

Bad parts of this week:
Rehearsal sucks. It’s long and boring and I can’t get work done. Either I can’t manage or I can’t stand to. Either way, no work. Some knitting, but no school work. We have Good Friday off from school, but we have rehearsal, 9:00 to 3:30 anyway, and again on Saturday, 10:00 to 3:30. Then I teach my sock class, and then I’m off to Dickinson. Yay!

And, our cat went missing. She’s been known to wander off some and come back a few days later, but we always get worried. We hoped she’d be back by now. The problem is that she doesn’t go out much anyway, so mom got her to come outside when it was warm on Monday or Tuesday, I think, and she didn’t go back inside. So I took some “Missing: feline” posters out to the neighbourhood, and we go for a “cat walk” every day, but so far no luck.

If you see her…

Monkey and Pomatomus

Now of course, because I am a terrible blogger, I have no pictures yet of any finished objects. But I have pictures of partly-finished objects.

My first Monkey sock! It’s a beautiful sock and I’m very fond of it. I knit it in about 4 days while visiting colleges and then started on the second one. The second one has met this unhappy demise:

Ran out of yarn. I’ll have to go down to Lovelyarns sometime soon and find a similar dye-set in Schaefer Anne to finish these. I loves them.

Also the ankle will have to be longer on Monkey #2.

Here is the first Pomatomus sock, in progress:

And here it is finished (and blurry):

The yarn is KnitPicks Dye-Your-Own that I dyed with KoolAid in green/blue and red. I spent the whole time knitting this sock cutting out the red. The inside is full of knots, but I simply don’t care. I think I like the sock. The second one is on hold because I got bored.

Instead, I’m knitting these:

for S, whose hat (remember this?) looked like a nipple on top. She wasn’t going to wear it, so she asked for legwarmers. I hope she’ll wear these. If not, I don’t really care. They’re quite a bit longer now, but she has a 14″ knee-to-ankle length, so I have a bit to go yet.

And that’s what’s in progress!

J is being lazy and won’t take pictures of the Blanket for me, so I’ll get them on Saturday. And the Diamantes are in the wash, mum says.