I'm Baaaaaaack!

I've been away from my blogging for so long that you probably thought I'd fallen off the face of the earth....I have been spending most of my online time on my Kindle Fire, and I'm just too slow keying on the onscreen keyboard to enter long blocks of text without getting frustrated. But I ordered myself a bluetooth keyboard, which arrived just a few minutes ago. It works like a charm, so I'll be better about blogging now. :-) I've been working on some Christmas gifts; Saturday I completed what I've been calling "hideous mittens". I love the pattern (The Yarn Harlot's "Cloisonne"), I love the yarn (good old dependable Cascade 220 superwash), but the colors are truly hideous! I made them for my supervisor at work; she's a big fan of the Baltimore Ravens, and their colors are purple with black and gold accents. Yuck. Oh, well, she'll like them and that's all that matters. I've ordered the yarn to knit myself a shawl called "Bigger on the Inside"....you guessed it.....a Doctor Who shawl! *LOL* I actually ordered some nice Cascade, but when it arrived it's much darker than I thought it would be. It's actually navy blue; that's okay, though. I'll make something else from it. Okay, I guess that's enough for my "return" post. :-) Have a great evening, and keep knitting!

Cloisonee Completed!

Oh, what a fun project this was!  I will definitely knit this one again, just with a different yarn.  I love the way that the cuff looks so intricate, but the look is accomplished with an easy-to-learn stitch.  I'm so glad that I tried it, and so glad that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee wrote a pattern that was so easy to follow.  I'm currently trying to finish up some of my many UFOs; if not for that I'd cast on another pair of these this evening!

A New Set of Mittens

We've had some truly weird weather in my little corner of the world in the past few weeks.  There have been temperature swings from one day to the next of 35 degrees F.  It's nuts.  One morning this week I left the apartment to go to work carrying a light jacket over my arm.  It was in the 60's and the air had a tropical sticky feel.  By that afternoon I was wishing I'd carried a much heavier jacket to the office....and a hat.....and a scarf.....and MITTENS!!

The next day involved bundling up to the max before going outside.  I poked around in my "scarf and mitten" drawer and was mortified to find that all my hand-knit mittens were in dreadful condition.  It's unbelievable; I'm a KNITTER and I don't own a decent pair of MITTENS??

So when I awoke this morning and looked in my UFO basket beside the recliner (I always knit for a little while on Saturday mornings.  It helps me get ready to face my household drudgery and keeps my downstairs neighbor from hating me for vacuuming and doing laundry too early on a weekend.  *LOL*), I thought "So maybe I need to knit mittens for myself instead of working on this stuff this morning."

I'd purchased the Yarn Harlot's "Cloisonee" pattern a year ago along with some Knit Picks "Swish" worsted specifically intended for knitting myself mittens, but for some reason had never knitted them.  So today is the day.

I admit to a bit of trepidation; I've never knit a pattern by a knitter as accomplished as Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.  I hope I have enough skills.  I'm getting ready to cast on, so wish me luck!

Semi-Normal

At long last, life at the office is back to semi-normal. The workload is still terrible and the new computer system is still a nightmare, but at least my hours are back to 40 hours a week. I must confess that the past few months have taken a toll. Hopefully now I can begin to get my life back in order.

For awhile I was forced to cut my beloved knitting back drastically. I was just too exhausted after work to even pick up the knitting needles. As the hours gradually approached a near-normal work week again, I actually FORCED myself to pick up a fairly mindless project for at least a half-hour in the evenings. It helps quiet my mind and center my emotions. Thank goodness for the "granny dishcloth" pattern. Nothing to think about, busy hands, quiet mind, useful end product!

There have been many times in the recent past that I've been grateful that I learned to knit. To paraphrase the Yarn Harlot, I don't knit because I'm patient, I'm patient because I knit.

I've also started knitting some grocery bag dispensers (early start on Christmas gifts). I adapted the pattern from several other patterns I found on Ravelry and other internet sites. I've posted my version in the "freebies" section (see the link on the right) if you'd like to try one. It's a simple project that knits up quickly. Sometimes it's good to work on an "instant gratification" project. :-)

Have a great weekend, fellow knitsters!

Waiting for Yarn

How insane is it that I'm waiting for yarn to be delivered before starting my next sizable project? I have BASKETS full of yarn. There's a term for this that I read on the Yarn Harlot's blog called "SABLE": Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy.

And, even though my stash has come dangerously near SABLE status, I find myself checking online to see when my next KnitPicks order is due to arrive. Hopeless, I tell you, I'm just plain hopeless. Oh well. A yarn addiction is a relatively harmless one.

The yarn I'm waiting for is to knit a TARDIS. For those of you uninitiated into the world of Doctor Who, a TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space) is a time machine used by Doctor Who and his companion(s) to travel through time and space to provide assistance to others. The TARDIS looks like a 1950's London police box; if you've never seen a photo of one of those, it looks something like a large-ish blue old-style telephone booth. You know, the kind that Superman used to change into his tights and cape back in the day.

Back to the knitting issue: I HAD some worsted yarn on hand that I thought would work, but this proved to be problematic on a couple of counts. First of all, it really wasn't the right color. I needed some dark blue yarn and some darker blue yarn, along with a small bit of white. As it turns out, the yarn I thought would work was MUCH too light, and it just didn't look right at all. Additionally, the worsted weight yarn was going to make this a BIG ol' TARDIS, much larger than I'd intended. So, KnitPicks to the rescue. I went online and selected some fingering weight yarn that I thought would be a better color. As always, the price was very reasonable and I had enough stashed on my Wish List there to bring my order up to the minimum order for free shipping. (I ALWAYS have something on my Wish List there....*LOL*)

And now I'm waiting. I have plenty to keep me busy until the new yarn arrives, of course. Actually I guess I SHOULD be working on some decluttering I'd promised myself I'd get finished.

But then again, there's a pair of socks I want to start.....

BSJ 1 Complete....BSJ 2 Already on the Needles!

I almost hate to say the first Baby Surprise Jacket is finished. It IS finished, you see, but it's so dreadfully ugly I wouldn't give it to anyone as a gift! As the Yarn Harlot said on her daily calendar day before yesterday "crap in, crap out". I used crappy yarn, and I got a crappy jacket. It's cheap acrylic, and it shows. Splitty, weird, YUCK. Never again. And I rarely say "never".

Oh well. It was a good learning experience, and I actually think I learned enough from knitting it to justify the time I spent on it, even if it's too small and looks like it's been attacked by a roving band of murderous wolverines. I've got the second BSJ (still not high-dollar yarn, but much better than I used on the first one) on the needles and just completed Row 6. Only 109 rows to go. :-) I just stopped working on it to take a quick meaurement, and it looks like I'm on track.

Just 6 rows in, and I'm already happier. I'm so easily pleased. *LOL*

I May Have Lost My Mind

Ages ago I made a mistake on the heel of the Diagonal Lace Socks I was knitting. It was just a dumb mistake made by not reading the CLEARLY PRINTED instructions (*kicking self*), but a mistake all the same. Irritated with myself, I decided that it was a mistake I could live with and just continued knitting along.

Everytime I picked up that pair of socks to work on them, that mistake glared at me. Finally, last night I decided, "Oh, forget it" and ripped them out and started over. Well....STARTED starting over. *LOL* While watching "Pulp Fiction" on TV and rewinding the yarn I got myself in a tangle, worked on the tangle until the movie ended, gave up and went to bed.

Ah well....as my hero Yarn Harlot taught me, there are no Knitting Police. Thank goodness.