Don't Spend an Entire Day Knitting or Crocheting

It makes your hands hurt the next day. That's me today. I was not in the mood to do anything yesterday so I sat and watched the second LOTR movie and then listened to my latest book on cd from the library. I have rediscovered the joys of free books at the library. It's foolish to spend my money on books I don't absolutely adore and can't live without, isn't it? I even found some books for Durwood. He's really ripping through them. One of these days he's going to have to get his own library card and go get his own books.

Next Sunday I'm going to a baby shower for DD's high school friend. I got the sweater, hat & booties all done. They're so cute. One of these days I might have a grandbaby to drape in handmade stuff. But I'm in no hurry, kids and kids-in-law, no hurry at all. Way too young to be a granny.

The reason for the dedication to yarn-crafting is I have 3 projects and I wanted to see some major progress on them. Plus I was feeling sluggish.

Here's the Khaki cardi about 10 rows from slipping the sleeve stitches onto waste yarn and then continuing on down the body of the sweater. I still like it and I still don't like purling, but I think I'm getting a bit quicker at it. Or maybe I'm just blocking it out.

The Mardi Gras Ankle Sox #2 is zooming right along. In about another inch it'll be time to decrease for the toe and then I'll have my first pair of Fixation anklets in no time. I'm really looking foward to the next sock project. Wait 'til you see!


I'm finding work on the Ripple Shawl goes so easy that I don't even realize I'm doing it. Hurts both hands though. I've got one more skein of Sterling and then the other Ebony skein to go and I'll be done. Not long now!

It was so busy at the dive shop this past week that I only was able to knit a half a Sudoku square so I didn't even take its picture. You can imagine half a terra cotta square. Sheesh. It's good that I was busier at work though. Very good.

Gotta run. Chef Durwood just announced supper's ready. He's a great cook and an all-around swell guy.

Exactly How Big are a Newborn's Feet?

There must be some debate about that pressing question because I followed the directions for making booties to match the Quickie Baby Sweater and, well, it would have to be Bigfoot's baby for them to fit. I only made one, so if anyone knows a one-footed baby with an enormous foot, let me know. The matching hat pattern that I found on Ravelry looks more like a hat than a baby bonnet and it uses size US 7 needles instead of the US 101/2 called for in the sweater pattern, but still uses worsted weight yarn, so I figured what's good for the hat is good for the booties. And I was right. I knit them, crocheted a chain tie, and got them finished last night. Aren't they cute?

Now I just have to crochet a chain to tie the sweater with. I'm still not sure about buttons or not. Maybe after the tie is on it I'll get a brainstorm.

Help Out Neatnik's School

One of the blogs I read daily is trek casts on. She knits excellent socks. She has put out a call for Box Tops for Education for her daughter, Neatnik's school. I thought maybe one of you might like to collect too. There'll be prizes. Might even be yarn!

Progress Report--week #27

Hope everyone had a fun 4th. Durwood and I hung out at home, doing as little as possible. It was an excellent holiday! Our lilies are blooming and so is Dad's rosebush. So pretty, and the pink lily smells like heaven. I harvested my first 6 blueberries of 2009 today; they didn't even make it into the house before I scarfed them down. Dee-licious.

My projects have been doing well. I can tell it's getting busier at work because I only managed to finish the 5th blue square and knit 1 terra cotta square, and I even had to finish that one at home.

I've been cooking on the baby items for the shower coming up in a couple weeks. I finished the first bootie but it's ginormous, like for a Bigfoot baby, so I'm not making a mate for it. Maybe I'll make booties with smaller needles. I shifted focus to the hat which I finished this morning. It's very cute and will look darling on Kelly's baby, won't it?


I knitted on my Khaki Cardi at Knit Night Friday night. Don't know how many rows I added since I'm not counting rows, I'm increasing until there are 106 stitches between the markers for the back. I wish I could take it off the needles and stretch it out but I'm afraid I'd screw it up so I'm leaving it on there. I'll be glad when it's time to split off the sleeve stitches and then the body will stay the same. All this increasing is a bit of a pain, not that increasing is hard but each row is longer than the last one. It's a bit disheartening.


I'm chugging along on the crocheted Ripple Shawl. Finished the first skein of Sterling and I'm 6 rows into the second. I'm getting about 15 rows per skein so I think things are going well.





Hmm, have I knitted on anything else? Oh yeah, the Mardi Gras Ankle Sox. I've turned the heel, picked up the gusset stitches, and started decreasing down toward the foot. I realized when I took its picture this morning that it looks like I'm knitting a small jockstrap, but I assure you I'm not.

Accessories

Even babies need accessories these days. I finished the sweater in no time, then cast on a bootie. I got as far as the instep and it just didn't make sense. Either there was something wrong with the pattern or something wrong with the way I was knitting it. Never willing to cast initial blame on the pattern, I looked at my work from every which way and, well, just got too frustrated. This is how the bootie looks right now. I was very frustrated.


I'll be taking it to Patti's Yarn Shop with me after work to see if two or four heads are really better than one--and to debate buttons vs. a yarn or ribbon tie on the sweater.



Then I decided to move onto knitting the hat. Things are going much more smoothly in the hat department, even if it's on smaller needles. I do think I didn't quite understand the pattern stitch when I made the yoke of the sweater because it looks so much different on the hat, but I'm sure not frogging the whole thing to make holes where there are none. Who, besides me, is going to notice the difference? Certainly not the baby.

No Lie

Whoever named this baby sweater pattern "Quickie" wasn't fooling around. It's also called the "5 Hour Baby Sweater" which I think is a bit of an exageration, but I cast this on (a few times) Friday night, worked on it quite a bit on Saturday, and finished it early Sunday afternoon. Next I'll make booties and a hat to match and I'll be ready for the baby shower. Oh, and decide whether I'll make a ribbon tie or put buttons on it. I'm leaning toward little pearl buttons.

Progress Report--week #26

Okay, this is it, the middle of the year. 2009 is half over. Don't fall down in amazement, I'm not making this up. Since there are 52 weeks in a year, 26 must be the middle; it's a mathematical fact. So I must have half of the things I had OTN at the beginning of this quest finished, right? Maaaybeee. Let's run the list... Accidental socks? Check. The Converts mittens? Check. Silk Road Purse? Check. Socks X2? Check. Fish Afghan? Check. Sudoku Afghan? No, but work on it every time I'm at work. Cardigan for Durwood? Haven't gotten that into the queue yet, but I haven't forgotten it.

Those are all the projects I had started when 2009 rolled around. I've started and finished a bunch of other ones in between (see list at left side of blog), and I'm still determined to finish any thing that was started on New Year's Day by New Year's Eve. Okay, right away I'm going to hedge that statement and give myself a pass on having the Sudoku Afghan all done by then, but if I get everything, but that, finished in 2009 I will consider myself a success. Imagine, I will have actually made a resolution and kept it. Amazing.

Now. Here's what I worked on this week. 1 1/2 Sudoku squares got made at work. I intend to finish the half this weekend so I can start Monday with a new color.





I logged a few rows on the Khaki cardi; it keeps getting bigger. I still love it. Purling still makes my left thumb ache.




Finished the first Mardi Gras Ankle Sock and knit the cuff on sock #2.






Crocheted a few rows on the Ripple Shawl. I can tell I've been a crocheter longer than a knitter. I can really zone out when I'm hooking along.





And, finally, because a week can't pass without me casting on something new. I got an invite to DD's high school friend Kelly's baby shower next month, so I found a pattern for a Quickie (5 hour) Baby Sweater and some pretty variegated Encore Colorspun in Color 7065 (they need better color names) to make it and dove right in. I'll admit right up front that I cast on and knit a couple rows more than once, so many times that I checked to see if just the cast on was supposed to take 5 hours. Sometimes things that are supposed to be easy are hard.