Fall

I love fall. I love everything about it (except the spiders). The colors and the rare, cloudy, rainy days like...TODAY! I'm sitting here in my hand-knit sweater (Cable Trim Pullover) and in my hand-knit socks (the first pair I ever made and they are still the most comfortable and fit the best...) and it's cloudy outside! Yea!

My mom and I are going down to a quilt store this afternoon then a Tea Parlor/House to check it out for a possible wedding/reception site.

And it's CLOUDY outside!!!!! Sooo happy!

In knitting news, last night at class I had to rip back 40 rows on the Sparkle Bolero because i read the pattern wrong (cry) but now it's on track and I don't feel like avoiding it like the plague. This is good. I worked on my new sock (just a st-st one they are so easy to do and keep me busy) during most of my classes yesterday...except at the knitting one. LoL. Once I get around to taking them, I'll post pictures of everything. But for now, I'm going to knit and look at the sky. BEAUTIFUL!

Catching up

My room is a mess (so is the rest of the house consequently), I've hardly knitted anything, I have to shop for furniture/clothing/and knit stuff before Monday the 6th, I leave for a month out of town (on a train!!!) on the 6th and Matthew leaves for MCRD (hell...) on Tuesday the 7th and I'm just not sure how it fit it all in.

Well we got back from our honeymoon (no knitting was accomplished-though I had good intentions and brought my bag) and the very next day I had work at 10am. Odd since normally we only have shows on the weekends. After work, Matthew and I watched HP movie 1 and generally slacked off. I got a wild idea to paint my room (everything had to go since our queen sized bed was moving from his place to mine) so late wednesday night I started taking everything out of the room. Thursday we painted ( I managed a few rows of knitting) Friday we painted some more (I knitted a bit more too) and Saturday we moved in the bed. Once everything is said and done, I'll share pictures but as of the moment, it's all a mess.

So thanks to the Ravelry Forum boards I got a lovely list of Podcasts to check out and currently I'm listening to Stash and Burn. My only issue is that I can't download them all and listen. Once I DL something the next one I DL replaces the previous one. Any suggestions? I'd love to have the full list of that one and a few others to take on the train with me rather than only one for the 3 day trip. Boo.

So the Cable Trim Pullover (Alpaca Sweater) has been shipped off. I dropped it off to see if I could have someone else make it up. I love the look and want to wear it, but I'm sick sick sick of making it and it looms over my head. I couldn't enjoy starting a new project with it siting there. So off it's gone and I'm currently working on a bolero in Rowan Calmer (i think). I'll have to give you more info later but my brain is sleepy which is usually my cue to head for bed.

P.S. I'm buying more sock yarn tomorrow. I'm really excited.

Lovely, Lovely Yarn

Well, Thursday was fun I must admit. I went into my LYS with 6 hanks of yarn to be rolled (2 for the Cable Trim Pullover...grr 4 for the Irish Yarn...grr...) and wound up buying more hanks of yarn (yea!). So in total I had 9 hanks to roll and needed to use her ball winder and swift (I really need to break down and buy my own). I didn't feel too bad because 5/9 hanks were bought from her and with the Irish yarn, I'm buying everything I need from her to make something with it. Not to mention I did all the winding. It took about an hour and 15 minutes to do so but it was enjoyable none the less. I like sitting in the yarn shop just being there has a calming effect and the product selection could not be finer.

Note to anyone buying me Christmas/Birthday/Wedding/Just Because gifts: Gift Certificates to my LYS will make me worship the ground you walk upon. Just saying. Not to mention you might get something out of it. :)

Anyway, so I bought sock yarn (one I'd been eying for 3 weeks -to be fair), and cotton yarn for a baby blanket I'm making. The sock yarn in 100% merino from Jitterbug color "Velvet Biibery"..uh yeah...deep, dark purples that blend into black. It's beautiful. The cotton is from Inca Cotton -100% Organic Cotton in natural dyes. How cool is that? Here's a picture of of them with a ball (and I use the term lightly) of the Irish Yarn. It weighs 9 oz so I figure I have enough for a beautiful leaf blanket...but more on that thing later.
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It's hard to tell but the cotton has a greenish color to it, the white from the Irish yarn is just so glaring, shade or no shade. It glows. Anyway, after spending 2 hours at the LYS I went home then came back to pick up an extra class so I could start on my Irish Yarn Leaf Blanket. Pretty and as soon as I have something to show you, I will. However, the %$&%*&^ pattern is driving me nuts. It's not complicated but you have to do about an hour and a half to get to the "first row" (there is a foundation row). If you screw up even so much as one stitch, your screwed pattern wise. I got all the way to the 3rd row and noticed I missed ONE yarn forward. Gah. So I ripped out 2 hours worth of work. I re-cast on the 345 stitches and started again only to realize I messed up AGAIN. At this point I started getting a little angry at the thing (ok I was livid at the first frogging) so I've put it down.

Speaking of angry, I need a new knitting bag. Mine likes to ruin my projects the rat fink. I had just finished the ribbing on the front part of my Cable Trim Pullover before class and put it in my bag to take with me. At some point during the 3 minuet car ride (5 with red lights) my bag managed to rip off a 1/3 of the stitches-most of which ran down several rows. That got frogged Tuesday. I haven't picked it up again yet.

I wound up sleeping at 3am on Thursday evening/Friday morning and woke up at 5:30 in the mother effing morning. I am not an early bird. I'm a (pardon the language) a raging bitch if I have to get up before 9:30 am (unless it's yarn induced like the Yarn Lady's Bag Sale was). But to only function on 2 fitful hours of basically catnaps? Scary. Anyway, I knew I wasn't going back to bed so I decided to be useful. I knit a sock.

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Here it is at 6:00 am in the misty morning. It's for Matthew (not that he'll be able to wear it come August) so don't blame me for the boring color choice. He picked 'em. I finished it around 7:00 am and cast on for the next one. I should make a note (just to be truthful) that I had been working on it the night before so it was about 60% done when I got up on Friday. I'm now currently stuck on the heel bit of the second one because (we didn't have a pattern that was written for his foot size) I think we didn't join enough stitches together. I should only have 64 total, but have 32/21/21 when I should have 32/16/16. Gah. I think I'm going to have to rip it back and have a do-over on the heel bit. I think I'll go in and bother my LYS again like I did today.

Which was when I went in to get the heel turned. But I bought more yarn! More sock yarn really. No picture sad to say, but I'll get one before I roll it up on Monday. It's this awesome variegated yarn of different shades of cream, brown, pink and black. It sounds weird but looks awesome. It's Jitterbug again but the colorway escapes me at the moment.

Whew. That was a long one wasn't it? If you stuck it out this long you've got my thanks. Drop me a comment if you'd like (or even if you don't like) and ...erm...leave a comment. :)

And because it looks like a caterpillar running away, one more sock picture for you:
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Bah!

I went to knitting class Tuesday night, all set to work on the cable trim pullover and when I pulled it out of my bag....BAM! Half the stitches were off the needle, flying in the air conditioned breeze. Some stitches had run far down so I said, "Screw it" and ripped the damned thing back to the starting point. Hell and damnation. I started on a pair of grey and white self patterned socks for the boy and I got to the heel flap prior to falling asleep at home.

The 4th of July was fun, we hung out at my girlfriends house, went swimming, watched movies and set off a few fireworks. Good times. I didn't however get any knitting done since we got home around Midnight and I was tired. Apparently lazing by the pool all day is exhausting. Who would have guessed?

Today, I'm planning on going back to my LYS to wind 6+hanks worth of yarn and to buy more (woo hoo). I need to run to JoAnns and pick up some material to sew into a few bags because apparently my knitting bag simply isn't cutting it. Bah. Blast.

....And mabey buy more sock yarn....

Knit, Knit, Knit

I doubt I'll be posting tomorrow so, Happy 4th of July. Enough of that.

Knitting huh? I've been working on the Cable Trim Pullover and I've finished the 2x2 ribbing on the front panel. Next I have the St-St increases then 8 inches of St-St before the neck shaping (I think). I completly missed knitting class last night, I was too busy watching Monk. Monk is fun to watch and since I never watch T.V. you've got yourself a pretty safe bet that it's enjoyable.

Really, nothing else has been going on. I started a cardigan fron Greetings from Knit Cafe but I'm going to rip it. I really don't like how the yarn catches and squeeks on my wooden needles so much so that it's got to go. So now I have 10 skeins of Fa Re Baruffa Maratona Extra Fine Merino (blue purple) that I don't know what to do with. Anyone want to trade?

Various Things

Well, not much knitting has been going on, sad to say. Monday I did manage to finish off the back of the Cable Trim Pullover (read: alpaca sweater) and today I cast on for the front. Other than that, not much else.
On Wednesday I went to my school for the orientation meeting and registration process. I think I ought to re-think this whole "History Major" thing. LB is very focused on paper writing, and can I just say I SUCK at paper writing? Not to mention my editor is joining the USMC in August so I'll be out of luck? It's not that I don't passionately love history and learning all about it, I'm just terrified about the billions of papers I'm going to have to write. Hell. Maybe I ought to be a dance major. Few papers then although I'm sure they have some. But a few is better than a paper for every class every semester. Hell.

My classes leave much to be desired. I was lucky enough to get the times I want but the classes themselves? Ick. To be a history major at CSULB you have to take (and do well in) 3 classes. The first one is the Methodology of History (or 301), I blacked out on the second one (302) and the Senior Seminar (499). I blacked out on the 2nd one because they went on, and on and on about how bloody hard 301 will be and that they only advise you take one other history class while doing 301 due to work load. Hell.

So I'm taking 4 classes next semester. 301, Pagan Culture, U.S. Colonial History and Religious Diversity in America. The Pagan Culture isn't as awesome and amazing as it sounds. It's classic Greek/Roman lit. Apparently the teacher rocks, and that was told by a math major and history major student. OK, I'll be positive about that. The US History one I'm completely ok with (that's my "Fun" class for the semester) and shoot me over the head I don't want to take Religious Diversity in US. I wanted to take the class on Buddhism but it was all full. Suck.

Thursday, Matthew and I had our Engagement photo's taken and we picked up our Handfasting rings form the jewelers. We are wearing them now, because he didn't want to wait despite it not being until July 22nd. I wish I could say that was our wedding date as well, but...he wants to wait for his first duty station...So January-ish I'll be getting married. I don't think I'm working all weekend which is a relaxing experience but sucky money wise. Alas, I shall survive.

I'm off to work on that pullover, if only to have more done by Monday's class.

Socks!

It's official, I've finished my first pair of socks!! I took pictures but alas, I can't upload them tonight. Woe to me-woe to you if I went into details. I'm not sure what to knit next. Should I do a summery tank top in pale aqua green/blue cotton, or should I knit up a sweater to toss over myself after yoga? Yoga, by the way is awesome. I go Thursday nights, and there is a class on Sunday mornings (I take classes through 24hour fitness). I'd like to go to the Sunday morning one, but so far there's always something keeping me from it. Figures.

Where was I? Oh, knitting. I could also start on a Debbie Bliss Bolero I've been eyeballing or maybe start on a blanket using that Irish wool Matthew's mother got me. Speaking of Irish yarn, my boss went to Ireland and brought me back some acrylic yarn. Nice! I haven't gotten it yet (it was a rough weekend, but it was nice of him to think of me. I'm planning on making up a baby blanket out of organic cotton for my cousion's daughter's 1 year b-day, but since I'll be out in Southern Illinois for just about the entire month of august (the heat and humidity will suck I know) I want to wait to start that.

I suppose I could just work on the Cable Trim Pullover (read: meh to it atm) but I like to have 2 projects going at once. I could knit more socks, there is always that available to me. Who can say?

In Progress

I finally, finally found my camera and was able to take pictures of my two WIP's.

Here's the Cable Pullover I'm working on (this is the back panel):


and the Alpaca shawl complete with a ticket stub to help you get a gist of the size it is so far:


Only 40-something rows to go!

WIP's

The past 7 days have been a nightmare of worry, stress, terror, tears and love. The first few days I was a mess to be sure, but I've slowly pulled myself together fragile as it may be. I'm grateful to knitting for being there to keep me reasonably busy. I've gotten a nice bit of knitting done on the Cable Trim Pullover (I still love that alpaca) and the Alpaca Shawl. Yum. However, my digital camera is hiding somewhere in my room so I can't take pictures and post my progress. Humph. My next two projects are going to be a Debbie Bliss Bolero in cashmerino, and Intolerable Cruelty (linky) from Knitty.com. The bolero I have been eying for a month or so and the skirt from knitty I'm making for my Fiancee. Technically, the skirt is for me, but during boot camp he'll get one day out of the 3 months for a family day, so I'm going to wear it there. He'll be all proud of his "sexy fairy" and be kicking himself for leaving me. :P He's even picked out what two colors to use. Any who, once I find my camera I'll post some in progress but for now, enjoy your day.

Life.

On Friday morning my Fiancee told me he signed up for the Marine Corps. Hell. Damn. Crap. Etc... So I didn't do much knitting although I've knit myself back together enough to work on my alpaca shawl and pullover a little (no pics sorry). I've come up to a stopping point on the shawl that isn't by choice but what can you do? I'll leave you with acute picture of us.

In Progress

Let's just wipe yesterday from our collective minds shall we? I did however, get some knitting done. So for your viewing pleasure:


Isn't it lovely? I know you can't feel or smell it but...heaven. Pure heaven. Same goes for this one:


It's getting bigger. I have no clue at the actual size of it thanks to the circular needles but, I'm thinking it'll be just fine size wise. Lovely all of it. I'm off for a tux fitting and lunch with a friend, so I shall blog more later! (I blog...hahahaha still gets me).

New Project!

Finally! Finally I've started on the Vogue Knitting (fall 2006) Cable Trim Pullover-also known as "alpaca sweater". Last night in class I cast on worked the k2,p2 rib then realized that-duh- on the next row you knit th e knits, and purl the purls. By that time I had knit my swatches (zomg) and realized my mistake class was over. On the swatches, I knit loose. The pattern calls for size 2 and 3 needles. So, we are decreasing the number of stitches cast on and using the 2 needle through out (to save me from the horrors of 1,0, or 00 needles). Anyway, I got home at 8:30pm and fell asleep. I woke up around 8:30 am (apparently I needed 12 hours of sleep) and stared at the messed up ribbing for awhile. To rip or not to rip that is the question. Damn it, I've been obsessing over this sweater for a month now and by god, I want it done correctly! I ripped. Two whole rows. Then re-cast on and k2,p2 then realized at the end of the first row I messed up somewhere and had to rip back. Being a little stressed at this point I knit a row on the Alpaca Shawl (which I fixed at faire-hazza to the spinner!) and felt much better. I then cast the sweater back on and... I suppose I ought to do more than just that.