FO Friday -- BAM! POW! Edition

I really did do some knitting this summer, and I actually managed to finish a few projects!  I know, right?  I don't quite believe it either.  I even learned a thing or two along the way.  Bonus!  See, a while back I learned that I really like doing two-handed stranded colorwork.  Then I learned that I really hate doing it on dpns.  It's so fiddly!  And annoying. 

But then, on a field trip to the Loopy Ewe, I found myself an 8"(!) circular needle, and immediately cast on for Fightin' Words.  I've been dying to knit this pattern for ages, but was holding out (see "fiddly" and "annoying", above).  The timing was good too, since I'd just been assigned an awesome partner for a swap on Ravelry and wanted to do something special for her.  I was a little worried about the teensy needle, but it wasn't too hard to handle and it made the colorwork so, so much faster.  I also learned how to catch floats without putting my knitting down, which sped things up considerably.  Really, they were a win all around.

And voila!

I LOVE the way they turned out so much that I was a little sad to send them off.  At least I can take comfort in the fact that they went to such a knit-worthy home.  Unfortunately, since they were gifted I only have the one picture of them, but something tells me there may be another pair of these in my future.  I want some, too! 

That's it for me, since we're heading up to the mountains for a weekend of camping with dogs and friends.

Yay, camping!  But go check out FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday for loads of other inspiring craftiness.  Then go have an amazing weekend, k?

The Wayback Machine

Holy Cannoli, you guys!  It's been a whole stinking summer since I last managed to put together a post.  I'm so sorry for abandoning you!  I hate it when a blog I read disappears for no reason, but it turns out that life gets busy some times, I guess. 

Anyway.  I'm here!  Still happily hitched, and just celebrated our first wedding anniversary.  That was a fast year.  Still knitting.  And since it's Work in Progress Wednesday, I guess we'll start there.  I've got 3 or 4 projects on the needles at the moment, but have 2 that I can actually show off.  First up, I've been not-really-working on a pair of Hermione's Everyday Socks for ages.  Sock 1 is finally nearing the finish line:

I like the pattern, and the yarn is pretty and soft.  Unfortunately, it's also really, really fuzzy and I'm not getting the stitch definition I'd like with this pattern.  But!  There's definitely something to be said for socks that are really pretty and soft, right?  Hopefully sock 2 will show up soon and make quick work of itself.

The other project on the front burner these days is a Heather Hoodie Vest.  I'm still working on the Austin Hoodie, but some time at the beginning of the summer I realized it had been aaaaaaages since I'd knit with anything other than fingering weight yarn.  It became a priority.  So a few weeks ago, I cast on with some of my Stitches West yarn, and it's going pretty quickly when I have a chance to work on it. 

Lest you think I'm a complete slacker, I also finished a couple of projects while I was away, and will have at least one of those to show you on Friday.  Really, I did.

In other news, we spent our summer buying and renovating a rental property.  Crazy, right?  We found a condo for a great price that didn't need much work and yada, yada, yada... yours truly has been up to her eyeballs in paint and drop cloths and light fixtures for the better part of the last 3 months.  It's all finished now, and looks pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself.  I'll put together a post of before and after pics in the next week so you can all see where I've been hiding lately.

Finally, the puppy turned 1!  She celebrated her birthday by eating the protective covering off the lawn edging in the back yard and then slicing her foot on it last weekend.  She followed that up by finding a way to chew through her bandage and removing all of her stitches.  But let's not talk about that part.  Sigh.  She's a high maintenance little bugger...

It's a good thing she's so cute.

That's all I've got for the moment.  While the shock of a new post is wearing off, go check out WIPW for lots of crafty goodness that happens on a more regular basis.  See you there!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.147

I really did mean to post last week, it's just that well... there was no progress.  How sad is that?  All my projects are at that annoying point where something significant needs to happen to them to get them any farther along.  And sometimes you just want to sit down and knit, ya know?  Anyway, I finally scooted a couple of them along this week, and while it's not much, it is forward motion.  So, yay!

First up, the Austin Hoodie body is finito.  It has to be blocked before the shoulders can be grafted and the sleeves started (see what I mean?), so it finally went into the drink this morning:

I'd actually used a bunch of different contrasting yarns as stitch holders for all the different sections of live stitches, but then I had a tiny panic attack:  What if all this dark yarn bleeds all over my pretty, pretty light colored madtosh?  And so I spent a good half hour pulling out all the contrasting yarn and threading matching yarn into all the different groups of live stitches.  It was pretty much just as riveting as it sounds.  But hopefully, we'll get a sleeve started in the next week and I'll be able to get going on it again for reals.

Next up is my long suffering Peerie Flooers Mitten, which has been in progress since the dark ages.  Just the decreases and the thumb left now, so it's poking along too.  And it's slightly more photogenic than the hoodie in its current state...

It will be a serious miracle if it gets a mate at this rate, but I really would love to wear it at some point, so that's good motivation.  Hopefully, it'll be good enough!

That's all that's in the hopper around here this week.  Go check out Work in Progress Wednesday for all sorts of awesome crafty bits!

FO Friday -- Beret du Swap Edition

Woot!  Two posts in a single week, my friends!  What's up with that?  I honestly have no idea, but I'm hoping it signals the start of a trend.  I'm proud to say that I actually have a finished piece of knitwear to show off, which feels great after working with big projects on tiny needles for sooooooooo long. 

I'm taking part in a swap for one of the Ravelry groups I belong to, and so decided to knit my swappee a fingering weight beret.  I know, right?  Crazy pants.  But I'd been eying this pattern in Coastal Knits for ages, and had the perfect yarn just sitting in my stash not doing anything.  It seemed like fate. 

The pattern is Rustling Leaves, and it's really a joy to knit.  The lace pattern is pretty intuitive for the most part, and it goes quickly.  I really love the way it turned out, so much so that I couldn't resist trying it on. 

It fit me and my wee little head just a smidge too big, so I'm guessing it'll be a good fit for a normal-sized human head.  I gotta say, I'm a little sorry to see it go, but on the upside, I threw the rest of the skein on my trusty yarn scale and I actually have enough left to knit one for me.  I might just do that.

That's all from this little corner of the woods this week.  I'm gonna go dive back into my Ptarmigan cowl so I can have that to show off next week.  This finishing projects business is pretty cool.  Until then, I'll see you over at FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday.  Happy weekend, y'all!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.144

Huzzah!  The knitting mojo has returned!  Unfortunately, All the Time in the World didn't show up along with it, but beggars can't be choosers, right?  I'm knitting again, and while I wish I had more time to do it, I'm mostly just glad to have needles in my hands again.

I even managed to knit a whole Something, which you'll have to pop in on Friday to get a look at, but it was really nice to finish something and block it, and have it be all cute and *done*.  I got so excited about it, I ran right out and cast on a new project!  I know, right?  I don't know who I am either.  That aside, check out the beginnings of my new Ptarmigan cowl.

I <3 this pattern a bunch.  I saw a shop sample at Fancy Tiger last fall and immediately bought yarn to make it because I really, really wanted to wear it.  But then I didn't knit it.  And it's been sitting in the craft room for aaaaaaaages.  So it's cute.  And fun to knit.  And stashbusting.  Triple threat!  Anyway, the yarn is Rowan Cashsoft DK, which is soft and sturdy, and has great stitch definition.  I'm a fan.  Really, it's a pleasure to knit.

I'm also still poking along on the Austin Hoodie.

Nearly finished with the body now, then it gets blocked, the shoulders get grafted together and I get to start on the arms.  Hopefully, all those steps will happen this week.

In other news, well...  I'm not sure there is other news.  It's mostly baby-trying and fertility stuff these days, and I'm on the fence about whether this blog is a good place to go into detail about all that.  Is it over-sharing?  Would it be helpful or interesting to anybody?  Feel free to let me know what you think on the subject.  And then go check out all the other WIPW entries.  I'm ridiculously behind on reading them myself, but there's always awesome stuff going on over there.

See you Friday!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.141

Hi again!  I promise I'm trying to get back here more regularly, but with everything that happened I seem to have misplaced my knitting mojo, resulting in not much to post about.  But, But! It looks like it's finally starting to resurface.  And so I have a tiny bit of P to report to all you WIPW peeps.  The Austin Hoodie continues.  It really is taking forever to knit, through no fault of its own.  It skips right along whenever I manage to pick it up, it's just the picking part that's been slow.

 Anyway, the back and right front are finished.  Left front is underway.  Then it's just two sleeves and a hood, and we're golden!  I'm loving knitting this sweater, and loving the yarn too.  It's knitting up into a lovely fabric. 

In other news, I got a job!  It's just a wee little one, but it's fun.  I'm officially the Assistant at Sunrise Fiber Co. !  How is cool is that?  Wren dyes absolutely gorgeous yarn, which she sells on etsy, and in a few yarn stores.  These are my current favorites:

First, Fig (which is a little darker and more mysterious than it looks on my screen):

And also Chamomile in the sparkle lace base:

She's also got a facebook page and a Ravelry group where she quite often announces great deals on her pretty stuff.  Not that I'm biased or anything, but go check it out.  If you buy yourself a skein there's a good chance that it's been wound by little old me.  And I'd like to apologize in advance.  I'm getting better, really.  But man, making a perfectly twisted skein is hard.

That's what's been keeping me busy around these parts.  I'm feeling the itch to cast on something shiny and new (just to break things up a bit), so come back next week and see if I've managed to hang onto my sweater monogamy or not.  I know!  The suspense is killing me, too.  To keep yourself busy between now and then, go check out all the pretty pretties over at Work in Progress Wednesday.  I'll see you there!

FO Friday -- Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!

Oh guys, I'm so sorry.  I totally fell off the face of the earth this month, and I apologize.  I did have some pretty good reasons, though...

Right before Stitches West, we found out that I was pregnant.  Right after I got back, we had an ultrasound that showed things were probably okay.  A week later, we had another that showed things were probably not okay.  A few days after that, Mr. Right had an accident at work that landed him in the hospital with a severed Achilles tendon. He had surgery to repair it, and is home and recovering.  While all this was happening, we found out that things were definitely not okay with the pregnancy.  Last week, we had a miscarriage.  It's okay.  Without going into too much detail, we got some encouraging news and we're hopeful.  We're both okay, just really trying to climb out of the last month's stuff. 

Anyway, when last we spoke, I was holding a contest to share part of my Stitches bounty, two skeins of gorgeous Alpenglow yarn. 

Thanks so much for all the comments and entries!  Man, I love having giveaways.  I especially like typing the numbers into the Random Number Generator.  Here's what it kicked out this time...

A quick perusal of the comments reveals that comment #11 was left by Cathy at Cat's Tale, all the way in Melbourne, Australia!  Big congratulations to you, Cathy!  I'll be mailing it this weekend, though there's really no telling how long the trip from Colorado to Australia will take.  I'm curious to see!

Anyway, things are beginning to return to normal around here, so you can expect to see me popping up more regularly again.  With knitting, even!  The mind boggles.  Until then, have a lovely weekend and go check out FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday for lots more yarniness.

FO Friday -- Free Yarn Edition

Okay, so I'm kinda cheating.  I don't actually have an FO to share with you all today, but (But!) I don't think you'll mind...

So, Stitches West was awesome this year (as always), and my trip to California was a blast.  I got to hang out with some of my favorite people, shop at my favorite grocery store, and eat my favorite tacos.  It doesn't get much better than that.

On Thursday night, we got our times muddled for the market preview, and showed up about an hour before it closed.  Despite a brief panic attack, we were able to get nearly all of our shopping done before the market closed.  Apparently, we're just very efficient. 

On Saturday, we took a class called "Switch to Continental".  The instructor was quite a character and there was quite a lot of eye-rolling going on, but by the time we left, I could purl in continental style.  I'm hoping to switch back and forth between Continental and English between projects for the sake of good ergonomics.  Plus which, it just looks kinda cool.

You know what's crazy?  I completely forgot to pull my camera from my bag at any point while we were at Stitches.  Sorry about that.  I did remember to take pictures of our field trip to the San Francisco Zoo, though! 

 

Oh, and the other thing I remembered to do while I was there was to buy some gorgeous yarn for y'all:

This is Alpenglow Yarn Sockerino in the English Lavender colorway.  It's just a tiny bit more muted than it looks in this picture, and it is awesome!  It's made in the US from 100% organic merino, and you all should consider yourselves very lucky that I have such epic self control that I didn't squirrel it away for myself when I got home.  If you'd like it to go home with *you*, just leave a comment on this entry between now and let's say 8pm (US Mountain Time) on March 14.  I'll use the trusty ol' random number generator and announce the winner in next week's FO Friday post.  Fair enough?  Oh, and leave a way for me to contact you in case you're the Winner!  

While you're waiting for my big announcement, go check out all the awesome entries over at FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday.  Then go have a fantastic weekend!

Work In Progress Wednesday v.134

Hey guys!  I made it back from my California vacation/Stitches West trip just fine last week.  I had an amazing time as usual, and have been busy, busy, busy since I got home.  I didn't forget about you though, you'll have to come back on Friday for a trip recap and so you can enter to win the pretty, pretty yarn I bought for you.  It'll be worth the click, I promise.

For now, you'll have to settle for getting up to speed on the projects I've been working on lately.  I think I mentioned it, but a few weeks ago I brought my Peerie Flooers Mittens out of deep hibernation and started working on them again.  I love, love, love these, but I've learned something about myself:  I hate doing 2-handed colorwork on dpns.  It's ridiculously slow going for me, and also awkward and fiddly.  If I'm ever going to make all the fabulous colorwork mittens in my queue, I'm going to have to brush up on my magic looping.  Maybe that will be easier?

Anyway, mitten #1 is chugging along (No, really.  It is.) rather nicely...

I have high hopes to finish it this week, but we'll see if they materialize.

In other news, I started a Hermione's Everyday Sock to knit up on the plane and during down time on vacation.  I absolutely love the yarn, but it's a little bit fuzzy so the stitch definition isn't great.  I think I'm okay with it though.  It's such a pretty color, and sooo soft.

And yep.  This is me practicing my magic looping.  So far so good, but I'd be farther along on the sock if I had any clue how to work a heel on two needles.  I think I've got some youtube time in my near future.  It can't be that hard, right?

That's what's going on around these parts this Wednesday.  I'm still working on the Austin Hoodie, but haven't made any progress to speak of lately so you'll see it again when it's bigger.  Until then, go check out all the lovely projects on the needles and hooks over at WIPW.  See you Friday!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.132

Hey y'all! 

I'm still here, just been ridiculously busy these last couple of weeks and so without much knitting time.  But!  But right now, I'm getting ready to head out to the airport to fly off to Stitches West!  I'm so excited, and promise there will be plenty of picture-ful reporting and even a treat for you guys once I get back.  So while I'm away, behave yourselves and go visit all the other WIPW entries for stuff that's decidedly more exciting than this. 

See you on the flip side!

FO Friday -- Sophisticated Edition

I know you've all been biting your nails in anticipation, so I'll come right out with it:

My Baby Sophisticate is finished!  Proof:

Thank you all so much for your suggestions about ways to make the sleeves work.  In the end, I had a very specific picture in my head, so I got myself another skein of yarn, then pulled out the sleeve and started again, alternating skeins every other row to better blend the colors. 

You can sort of almost see it if you look very, very closely but I'm willing to live with that.  I'm really happy with the way it turned out, though.  And I'm hoping it will be well loved in its new home. 

Since that's all that's really going on this week, you get a gratuitous puppy shot.  She's growing like a WEED, and while she's definitely not an FO, she is making progress (thank God!).  I think we'll keep her.

Even if she did eat my phone charger.

Have a lovely weekend, guys!  And consider kicking it off with visits to FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday.  I'll see you there!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.129

Greetings from Puppy Land, where everything is snuggles and puddles and please-for-the-love-of-all-that-is-holy-don't-chew-on-THAT, and where there is only precious little time for knitting these days.  The culprit:

Lucky for her, she's ridiculously cute.

But!  I did manage to knit a bit.

For instance, I managed to knit enough of my Baby Sophisticate sweater to realize that I have not enough yarn to finish.  Boo!  Looks like I'm about 12 yards short on sleeve #2, so I'm currently trying to decide how to remedy the situation.

Cute sweater though, eh?  Think the recipient would notice if it had only one sleeve?  Design element?  No?  Yeah, me either.  Sigh.  Stash busting is hard, man.

In other news, I'm nearly done with the back of my Austin Hoodie, and loving how it's looking, especially the woven section and the ribbing (Is it weird that I desperately want to block it RIGHT NOW?)...

I'm hoping to finish up the back and get started on the fronts in the next couple of days because I expect the sleeves and hood to take a soul-suckingly long time.

For now, I have a question if anyone's game.  I'm working on a row where I knit X number of stitches across the back, then put Y number of stitches on a holder for the neck, then work X number of stitches on the other side, and begin working up the left shoulder.  The pattern doesn't say to break the yarn here, or to join new yarn on the other side of the held stitches, but that's what I need to do, right?  I'm sure it is, I'm the sort who obsessively follows directions, and it's not in there.  Anyone care to nod at me before take the leap?

Then, after you solve all my problems, go check out the rest of the Work in Progress Wednesday posts.  I'll see you there!

FO Friday -- PUPPY!! Edition

guys! Guys! GUYS!  Guess what?  Okay, you guessed.  WE ADOPTED A PUPPY!

(I know, I know, FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday are all about the knitting, but if I talk about my stripey socks and make you wade through lots of words, all you'll read is:  Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, PUPPY!  So if you're strictly interested in fiber, scroll down for the socks...)

Here she is!  See?  (Shelter's fuzzy pic):

My much better pre-adoption snap:

And the picture that melted my heart:

Now that we have the squeeing out of the way, I can tell you the story.  Mr. Right and I have been talking about getting another dog to (at best) keep our old girl company.  Or at the very least, to inspire her to be more active during the day.  So we decided that I would go by the shelter after I dropped him at the airport on Wednesday to do some initial research.  Easy enough.  I went, looked at lots of grown up dogs and made a list.  One by one, they dropped off because of different limitations (hate kids, hate other dogs, that sort of thing).  I was standing at the desk going through this list with the clerk when an old man came in with this cute little puppy on a leash.  She proceeded to run  up the back of my jeans, then went away with the man.

I went and met with a dog who turned out to be Not Our Dog.  He was a cutie, but would've driven our geriatric shepherd into an early grave.  No dice.  When I went back out, the clerk told me I should check back since they get new dogs all the time.  "Like the puppy that guy just surrendered."  What???  Seriously???  Why would anyone do that???  "Can I see her?"  And the rest, my friends, is history. 

I sat down on the floor with her and she climbed into my lap.  It killed me.  Then someone walked past the glass door and she ran over and barked.  Shortly after that, a big dog went by and barked at her, and she dove back into my lap and tucked her head behind my purse strap.  Then it was really all over.

After a meeting with our dog, and a looooooooooooooong phone conversation with poor Mr. Right who's half a continent away, we decided to bring her home.  I can't believe it!  She was spayed this afternoon, and Mr. Right and I will go pick her up tomorrow morning on the way home from the airport.  She's SO not the dog we thought we'd be adding to our family, but she's perfect!  She's ostensibly a purebred Australian Cattle Dog who is 4 months old.  And at the moment, she's called Peanut, but I expect that will be old news by the end of the weekend.  We'll see what fits our new girl.

And oh yeah.  In other news,  I knitted some socks.   I finished these before the holidays, but they're the last in my back up of FOs.  This was my first foray into the world of self-striping sock yarn, and I've made a vow not to buy any more of it without seeing a swatch.

In the beginning, I thought they were the ugliest things I'd ever seen. (In my defense, the first repeat started with pink, purple, rust.)  But I must admit, I'm pleasantly surprised with the way they turned out.  They're a nice bit of cheer in a pretty dreary winter.

Now that you have your puppy fix, go check out FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday.  Both are guaranteed to have much more yarn-y goodness than this particular entry -- but absolutely no chance of finding a cuter puppy.  You win some, you lose some, right?

Work in Progress Wednesday v.127

The weeks just keep flying by, don't they? A blink and it's already (WIP)Wednesday again!  Craziness.  Things are cracking along over here.  I've made some (seemingly invisible) progress on the Austin Hoodie...

I swear it looks nearly like it did last week, but I finished another 3" of body, then started the cool woven section -- linen stitch, I think -- and divided the back from the fronts.  I'm currently marching up the back of the sweater, determined to wear this thing at Stitches West.  That's 35 days from now, but who's counting?  Right. 

And, as promised, those two partial skeins of yarn got some attention this week, and have morphed into this:

Actually, that's what it looked like on Saturday when I decided that I'd better take a picture in case I accidentally finished before I had time to take a proper WIP photo.  No such luck, as I've slowed down considerably over the last few days, strategizing.  You see, this is how much charcoal yarn is left:

24 grams.  And I still have one shawl collar/ button band and two striped sleeves to make.  It's gonna be a squeaker, my friends.  I decided to knit the collar/band first, since I know I want that to be grey, then weighing my yarn as I go to determine how much striping the sleeves will require.  So cross some fingers for me, please.  You can check back in a week or so to see how it all turned out.  You're all biting your respective nails, right? 

Meanwhile, I'm going to get back to the task at hand.  Mr. Right is leaving for a business trip today (boo!), so I expect to have lots of uninterrupted knitting time and silly girly movies to keep me going for the next few days.  Could be worse, right?

FO Friday -- Really Big Beanie Edition

I can't believe it.  It's Friday again, and I actually have another FO to share.  Know what's the best part?  I already have another one ready to go for next week!  I know.  I can't believe it myself.  Now that we have that out of the way...  I present (Really Big) Turn A Square:

Ta da!

Note that the hat in question was very helpfully modeled by Mr. Right prior to being gifted, and that my sweetie has a much smaller noggin than the intended recipient.  I'm happy to report that it fit Brother-in-Law's giant melon quite nicely.

Anyway, I think I mentioned that I decided at some absurdly late date to knit a pair of fingerless mitts for my shiny new sister-in-law for Christmas.  Well, some time around the thumb gusset for mitt number one, I came to the conclusion that it would be sort of rude to do that and not make something for her husband too. 

And so I set about making Jared Flood's super cool hat pattern on December 28 (keeping in mind that we were seeing this part of the family on December 30).  It went swimmingly, and after just a few hours of frenzied knitting I was ready to start the crown decreases.  Unfortunately, I had nowhere near the correct number of stitches.  A quick review of the pattern revealed that I'd completely forgotten to do the increase round after the ribbing.  You know, about 1" into the hat.  Gah!  I spent a good hour trying to convince myself that it might be alright if I just knit the hat a little longer, and maybe his head wasn't so big, and maybe... 

Then (you know what's coming, right?) 

I ripped the whole blinking thing out (well, back to the ribbing anyway) and started over.  On December 29.  Le sigh.  Somehow, I managed to knit like the wind, and even got it finished in time to take a few photos *and* get it wrapped before our gift exchange.  Phew!  I'm awfully glad it worked out, and that he was happy with his hat, and even angling for his own pair of fingerless mitts.  But really, I don't think I'd like to get quite that close to a gift deadline again.

Bonus Points:  I totally knit the mitts AND the hat from stash yarn!  For those of you keeping track at home (okay, I'm willing to accept that I might be the only one)... That's 4(!) projects in a row from stashed yarn!  I'm hoping to continue this trend for the better part of this year, but we'll see how it goes.  Anybody else stash dieting this year? 

That's it from these parts.  Hope y'all have a great weekend! If you have time, I highly recommend starting it off with visits to FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday.  All the cool kids are doing it.

Work in Progress Wednesday v.126

Happy WIPWednesday, peeps!  I'm still here, and while I don't have anything even remotely exciting to share with you, I can promise that I really have been knitting my fingers off of late.  Evidence:

That right there is a solid 12.5" of Austin Hoodie body.  I know it doesn't look like much, but really it's a megaton of knitting in frustratingly skinny yarn.  I really, really, really want to have this finished to wear to Stitches West next month, but I'm not sure I'll make it.  Cross y'er fingers for me?

The most annoying thing about this is that it's a New Year, and I've survived the holidays, and I have some time finally, and I want to knit ALL THE THINGS.  Right now, please.  And so I'm knitting like a crazy person and making not much visible progress since I'm working at such an itsy gauge.

Only one thing to do:  Cast on Something Else!  Of course, that's the answer to all manner of knitting dilemmas, right?  So by next week, this little pile of yarn...

Should look a little more like a Baby Sophisticate.  Yay for instant gratification projects!*


*Yes.  I'm well aware that this will actually slow my hoodie pace, thus actually preventing me from achieving my goal.  But don't bother me with details right now, there is a shiny new pattern to be conquered!  Woot!

PS.  You can feel free to pull out the I-told-ya-so's next week when I'm crying about my snail's pace.  I think that's fair.  Until then, go check out all the other (slightly more sane) WIPW entries over at Tami's.  They're sort of universally awesome.

Cheers!

FO Friday -- Fo Ho Ho Edition

Twice!  In one week!  Be still my beating heart, it's SO fun to be back here and be in touch with all my bloggy friends.  I missed you guys!  As I mentioned, I lost all my marbles the week before Christmas and decided to make presents for my shiny new sister-in-law and her husband, neither of whom I'd ever met (despite being with Mr. Right for almost 7 years now!).  I have no idea what possessed me to do this, but once I got the idea in my head there was no convincing me otherwise.  Nooo, I'm not stubborn at all.  Why do you ask?

Anyway, I decided a pair of worsted weight fingerless mitts would be a good idea since I had a pattern I'd been eyeing, and plenty of appropriate yarn.  What I didn't have couldn't find was a set of dpns in the right size.  Grumble.  Undeterred, I decided now would be a good time to teach myself how to magic loop (see "stubborn" above).  And while I found looping completely unintuitive, I totally pulled it off, yo!  Check it out:

Okay, I didn't have time to block them, the color's kind of wonky in this photo, and there's one tiny mis-crossed cable on the right mitt that I had to work hard to ignore, but overall, I'm really happy with how they turned out.  And they look pretty good on, if I do say so myself:

This is much closer to the actual color

Sister-in-law was properly happy with her gift when she opened them, until Mr. Right made sure to let her know that I'd made them.  She didn't believe him at first, then was all kinds of impressed.  Definitely a knitworthy reaction, which was really fun.

And once I finished the mitts, I decided to knit a hat for her husband.  Twice.  But you'll have to wait until next week to hear that harrowing tale.  You see, I'm currently knitting a fingering weight hoodie, so if I don't string out my recent FOs, I'll have nothing to share for eons.  Until then, there are plenty of other goodies to check out over at FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday. Go check 'em out!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.125

Surprise!  Also, Happy New Year!  It seems I took a bit of an unintentional holiday while I adjusted to married life and working from home these last few months.  Sorry 'bout the radio silence, but I think I'm finally in a place where I can comfortably get back to blogging.  Yippee!

And what better place to start than my beloved Work in Progress Wednesday.  And I have work!  In progress, even!  I think the last time I popped in, I mentioned that I'd finally cast on for the Austin Hoodie I'd been dreaming about for ages.  It's still plugging along, but it's not terribly photogenic yet.  Exhibit A:

Really though, it's much farther along than it was.  There's about 6" of body there and I'm busily working the waist decreases at the moment.

It'd be bigger, but I got some crazy idea that I wanted to make a pair of fingerless mitts for my shiny new sister-in-law for Christmas.  And that meant I should probably also make a hat for her husband.  Totally reasonable if not for the fact that I had this revelation right around December 10 while I was finishing up a pair of socks.  But I pulled it off.  All of it.  For a minute there, I felt like Super Knitter.  It was exciting since the socks fit like a dream and both of the gifts were well received.  It was also exciting because I have material for lots of upcoming FO Fridays.  Bonus!

Anyway, while I was busily not blogging, I was doing other fun stuff.  We got some snow!!

Then Mr. Right had a birthday which prompted a weekend trip up north to Moose Country, resulting in lots of this:

And a pleasant amount of this:

And then Christmas appeared, and brought this with it:

*insert Kermit flail here*

I've been wanting a food processor for ages, and am so excited to finally have it.  Now I feel like I need the perfect recipe to test it out.  I've been perusing my new Smitten Kitchen cookbook, but haven't settled on anything yet.  So I'm open to suggestions.  What should I make with my fancy shmancy food processor?  Feel free to leave ideas in the comments -- I'm terribly impressionable.

With that, I'll say "See you Friday!"  And really, I will.  Promise.  I'll also be around more this year and will get back to blogging about other stuff some times too. Good times will be had by all.  Hmm... This sounds suspiciously like a list of New Year's resolutions, but let's just call them plans, shall we?

Edit:  Confession:  I wrote this post on Tuesday night and scheduled it to post on Wednesday morning.  It went ahead and posted it anyway.  I guess Blogger figured it'd been long enough between posts or something.  At any rate, if you read this on Tuesday night, be a sport and pretend it's Wednesday.  Mmmmkay?