FO Friday -- Bonfire Edition!

I must say, I have NEVER been so beside-myelf-excited about the completion of a project before.  And here it is.  Ta Da!

It really is pretty.  And when I picked the pattern up almost a year (!) ago, I knew I was in a little bit over my head.  Not many folks had knitted it yet, and even fewer had finished it.  But what the heck, I thought as I dove in.  I made some mistakes early on that resulted in some frustration and some frogging, but once I got going, I was all excited and hopeful.  The trouble was, the farther I got, the worse it went.

The bottom line is, I just hate this pattern.  The designer creates some truly beautiful sweaters, and other folks don't seem to have this much trouble.  Go figure.  But the pattern wasn't cheap, and it was 14 pages long, which seems sort of silly.  And when I printed it out, I found that every single page contained an ad for the designer's web site, which was annoying, but whatever.  Then page 13 -- a full page ad.  Really?  Embedded in the pattern I just paid you for?  So glad I wasted ink to print that out.  Grrr.

The second major annoyance was that even with 13 pages of pattern, I had to write out the instructions by hand -- row by row -- in order to make any sense of several of the sections.  It's convoluted and unnecessarily complicated, which probably bugs me more than most since I used to write really good instructions for a living in a former life.

The third major annoyance was that the pattern, at least for my size, was FULL of errors.  I had to stop and count, and tink and fiddle at least three or four different times times only to find that the mistake wasn't mine, it was the designer's.  Curiously, there were no typos at all in any of the ads.  Another grrrr.

Finally, even though my gauge swatch was spot on, this thing is miles too big.  Granted, I've lost almost 30 pounds since I started it, but even 30 pounds ago, the bottom would've been too big.  See?

So now, all that work and all that yarn will be going to a lovely lady from my lunchtime knitting group.  Because it fits her, and she looks fabulous in it.  In return, she's offered to buy the yarn for my next sweater.  I'm pretty excited about this part, and counting on you all to help me pick the pattern.  We'll do that in the next couple of weeks.

Anyway, back to the evil pattern at hand.  With all of these difficulties and a year of frustration, I decided there was only one thing to do.  This:

Yay, fire!


I can't tell you how completely satisfying this was, and how I wish all of you had been there to experience it with me.  We could've toasted marshmallows and sung Kumbaya!

Thanks for hanging with me through this epic dredge of a project!  I swear the next one will have a happier ending, mostly because the pattern is by Ysolda Teague, who's brilliant and lovely and writes patterns that are elegantly constructed and crystal clear that turn into beautiful sweaters when all is said and done.  Hooray!

Once you've properly recovered from the shock of my impromptu pattern flambé, go check out the rest of the FO Friday posts -- lots of beautiful stuff, though I think this might be the only bonfire...

PS.  I'm linking up to Fiber Arts Friday for the first time today, too.  Even more fun!

Work In Progress Wednesday v.56

This, my friends, is a VERY exciting Wednesday.  Okay, it's not *that* exciting, but given how things have been going lately, I think it counts...

You see, it's WIPW, and you don't get to see a picture of the Vest From Hell today.  That's because it'll make its debut (and final bow), on FO Friday instead!  Whee!  I have only one armhole left to complete.  That's picking up 101 stitches, knitting 5 rows of sloppy 1x1 rib on clunky size 10 dpns, doing a serious happy dance, then blocking.  I can totally have that done by tomorrow night. 

And then it's back to my lonely little Hedgerow Sock, who's been sorely neglected this week while I concentrated on making the Vest a thing of the past.  No pictures of it either, since it looks much like it did when we last visited it.  However, I'm excited to get it growing again.

But really, I can't throw up a post with no pictures.  So, because I love you guys, I went out and bought an AMAZING book and took its picture:

That is Ysolda Teague's new book, Little Red in the City ($32 on Amazon, $25 at my LYS.  Score!).  I plan on writing a proper review of it once I'm finished reading, but just to give you a sneak preview:  Go buy this book.  It is all kinds of awesome, and has chapters about choosing yarn for a project, making swatches that are *gasp* useful, and making a pattern fit your actual body (see Vest From Hell, above).  And it's all written so clearly.  I may swoon.

The other thing it contains is 7 fabulous sweater patterns, 5 of which I'm dying to knit.  First up for me is Angostura (Ravelry has better pics on the pattern page).  How cool is that?  I know, right?  Seriously cool.

You know what else is cool?  4 skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash in the colorway "Ruby" to make it with.  This color is definitely swoon-worthy.

Come back next week to see an epic swatch, and hopefully the beginnings of a fabulous red vest to go with my new red socks.  Hmmm...  I'll have to cast on a third project just to break up the color monotony a bit.  Sexy Vesty, anyone?  I think I might have a go at that one, too...

Finally, for those of you following along, Mr. Right and I are still hanging in there, still working on stuff.  But, I'm sure you're getting tired of the same update every week (I know I am!), so I promise to tell you the instant anything exciting happens or gets resolved, but until then just assume that we're still plugging along.  I'm still basking in all the support and kind words y'all have left for us!

Now that the mushy stuff is out of the way, go check out everyone else's WIPW entries for actual projects on needles.  I'm sure there must be one or two...

Work In Progress Wednesday v.55

I have this fantasy life wherein I update this blog more than once a week, but somehow am unable to make it a reality at this point.  Sigh.  At least Wednesdays are still happening pretty regularly.

I think I must've fallen into some sort of hamster-wheel-style time warp this week, since I've been working and knitting and knitting and knitting and I'm in pretty much exactly the same spot as this time last week.  How does that happen?

Mr. Right and I are still working on stuff.  Not much progress on that front this week, unless you count swinging from happiness to despair and back again as progress.  I do suppose that we'll get it worked out one way or another eventually, but just between you and me... limbo kind of stinks.

On other non-progress fronts, Hedgerow Sock #1 continues, and is getting cuter by the inch.  (This is the part where I apologize about the crappy photos.  A big cloud came just as I was setting up in my driveway outdoor photo studio.  Sorry!)

It really is bigger than last week, I promise.  One more round to go, then it's heel flap city, baby.  It'll look different next week. I'm almost sure of it.

And then there's the Vest (And no, it's not really purple this week.  See photo disclaimer above...) I spent about 4 days (I guess that's why I don't have more to show for myself) picking up stitches for the shawl collar.

 Have I mentioned that this pattern is not my friend?  Grrrr.  Anyway, eleventy billion attempts later, I actually have the correct number of stitches on the needle and am ready to actually *gasp* knit.  It still doesn't fit AT ALL, but I'm happy to report that it does fit one of the ladies in my lunchtime knitting group, and looks pretty great on her.  Providing I ever get the dumb thing finished, she's promised to give it a good home, and has offered to buy the yarn for my next sweater in return.  I'm pretty excited about this arrangement, I gotta say.

Speaking of being pretty excited... I just booked a plane ticket to head out to the east coast next month.  I have friends from Colorado who will be staying in Pennsylvania for a couple of months, and invited me to come visit.  Who am I to turn down an offer like that?  And, I have other friends in New Hampshire who I'll drive up to see while I'm there.  Very cool, especially since I have a burning desire to visit all 50 states, and haven't hit New England at all yet.  You can knock out something like 5 states in a day over there-- utterly mindboggling to this California girl.  Here's where I've been:

That makes 19 so far.  31 to go!  How 'bout you guys?  How many states have you visited?  Inquiring minds and all that...  And after you've told me about your travels, make your way over to WIPW and check out everyone else's progress this week.  There's some seriously crafty crafting going on over there!   

Work in Progress Wednesday v.54

Greetings from RollerCoasterLand, where Mr. Right and I will forever be apart.  Together.  Apart.  Rinse, repeat.  It's been a tough week, as Mr. Right is preparing to head to Hawaii (!) for work.  For a month.  Really?  We're inseperable for 5+ years and he goes nowhere exciting for work, and then we're apart for 2 months and he scores a trip to Hawaii?  Life is *very* unfair (Yes, I'm completely aware that life gets WAY more unfair than this in all kinds of ways. But at the moment,  I'm not coping all that well.)

In other news, I cooked for the first time in 2.5 months -- dinner for 6 -- on Sunday night.  It was kind of weird being back in the kitchen, but but also fun.  And sad.  Dinner turned out pretty well though.  We had lasagna, artichoke garlic bread, caesar salad and dump cake for dessert.  All in all, a pretty good evening.

I also managed to get back to knit night on Monday, and worked a bit more on the Vest From Hell, which is behaving itself at the moment, but is definitely going to be too big when it's finished.  Hmmph.  Perhaps it would make a good blog giveaway prize?  I guess we'll see once I get it all wrapped up.

I got home early enough to take a picture in my driveway (lovely concrete, no?), to give y'all a better idea of the actual color of this thing. That part I like. A lot.

No more progress on the Hedgerow Socks as I seem to have mislaid the pattern and haven't bothered to print another copy.  But I have decided to keep on knitting them, thanks to all your helpful comments last week.  I think they'll be pretty cute -- and loud! -- once they're finished.   But here's a slightly better shot of the color.  Yay for sunlight!  It's RED, for sure...

But the more I look at it, the more I like it. I should probably look for the pattern or something, assuming the knit fairies aren't going to show up and work on them while I'm sleeping...

That's about all the excitement I have to offer this week.  Fortunately for you, there's lots more interesting stuff going on over at WIPW.  You should go check it out.  Seriously.

Work In Progress Wednesday v.53

Hi again!

Sorry I've been MIA for so long, this year is just stupid crazy and I can't seem to get out from under the wheels of the bus.  So...

When last we spoke, Mr. Right and I were starting 2 weeks of No Contact in our counseling quest to decide if we'll get married or call it quits.  I was doing pretty okay with that,  well... better than expected, anyway.  On Sunday, I went over to our friend A.'s house so he could do some maintenance work on my yard.  I was feeling awfully proud of myself for getting it done, too.  I hate spending free time doing stuff to the car.  Anyway, he fiddled with it for a while and then I drove home, all excited about how happy my car sounded.  I was about 2 miles from home when the car died while I was going 70 mph.  Dang.

I called A. and asked him to call Mr. Right to see if this counted as one of our "emergency contact" situations.  (Mr. Right knows my car inside out, having put a new engine into it last year).  Our friend is *dying* for us to end up together, so he called Mr. Right and told him I was stuck and he needed to come get me.  No explanations or anything.  He's sneaky, that one.

Anyway, long story not-so-short, Mr. Right came to rescue me, and we spent the next 5 days seeing each other every day to "work on the car".  I'm hopeless.  Then he drove me to the airport so I could go visit some old friends in Tahoe for the weekend (super fun!), and picked me up last night.  It was lovely, but all of it earned us another week of not talking to each other, since we thoroughly cheated our way through the last one.  Sigh.  I guess it's a good sign that we hate being apart, right? 

But I did more than just cheat on my counseling assignment over the last two weeks.  I also knitted the Vest From Hell some more.  It's all together now, just adding the trim around the front, then the shawl collar and the armbands.  It's getting close.  (Sorry about the sideways pics -- for some reason I'm not allowed to rotate them today.  Hmmph.)  See?
Hopefully, it doesn't look dreadful on me when it's all finished.  When I started working on it, I was afraid it would be too small.  Now it sort of swallows me up, but it's still hard to tell how it will look once all the trim is in place.  I'm trying to keep an open mind.

And, since I was traveling, I needed a smaller project to tote along on the plane.  I *finally* pulled the Hedgerow Socks out of hibernation, with different yarn, and started on them again. 

They're cool, but they're awfully loud in this red, and though it looked like a pretty solid color in the skein, it's doing a crazy stripedy thing in the sock.  Don't get me wrong, I'm generally a HUGE supporter of anything striped, but it's not really working for me in this pattern.  I'm on the fence.  What say ye, WIPW'ers?  Keep on trucking or head for the frog pond?  Share your thoughts, please.  I'm a huge disaster at making decisions these days.

Vacation was nice.  If I'd remembered to actually take any pictures, I'd share them with you right about here.  Suffice to say I spent 4 days at a house near Donner Lake, hanging out with good friends, playing Bananagrams, canoeing, knitting and reading.  Ooh!  And we went to a fabulous dinner at the Cottonwood.  If you're ever in the vicinity of Truckee, CA... I can't recommend it enough.  Yum. 

I also (with loads of help from the World's Greatest Neighbor) stained my back fence last weekend.  It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. 

Good thing I like the color, as it ended up on my shirt, and in my hair... and on my legs...

For those of you keeping track, that's two WIPs and one vacation in the last two weeks.  Not bad considering I spent the previous few weeks curled up in the fetal position. 

Now go check out the other WIPW entries (all one zillion of them) and see what everyone else is up to!

Work In Progress Wednesday v.37

And now for something completely different... (can anyone name the obscure tv show reference?)

It's Wednesday!  And I don't have much knitting *gasp* on the needles.  I know.  I'm as shocked as you are.  The vest needs to be seamed and have the trim added.  Not much going on there at the moment.  The Super Secret Citron blocked beautifully, and is patiently awaiting its moment in the sun on Friday.  I can't decide on yarn for the next project (which will be a KnitPicks order). 

And so where does that leave me?  It leaves me doing some serious stash diving, and coming up with part of a skein of Sugar and Cream cotton and a fistful of Snoopy Dishcloth Pattern (Ravelry link, but the pattern's free!).  And when they came together, it looked something like this:

It's just over half done, and Snoopy's all there, except for his noggin.  Turns out he's got a pretty big dome on him.  This is fun, fast, and really cute.  Who doesn't love Snoopy?  I will say that after knitting with that super fine (Filatura di Crosa Nirvana, in case you were wondering) laceweight, that this cotton feels a bit like I'm knitting with bailing wire.  My hands get pretty red after half an hour or so.  I know -- sissy.  What can I say?  I'm a delicate little flower.

Anyway, we have house guests this week -- safely stashed at Mr. Right's house, but still keeping the both of us extra busy.  So I'll make this quick.  I promise to choose some yarn in the next day or two so we can get on with Super Secret Project #2.  And when I have a few minutes, I'll head over to check out everyone else's progress over at Tami's.  See you there!

Oh.  And also?  GO SHARKS!!!!!

Work In Progress Wednesday v.36

Man, I've been trying for daaaaaays to get over here and post.  And I've been thwarted.  Repeatedly.  So, hi! It's Wednesday again.  The one with all the work in progress.  Yep, that's the one.

I've made a metric ton of progress on the Super Secret Citron in the last week.  So much, in fact, that I have only 4 more rows to go on the ruffle (!).  SO much that you get no picture this week, so that you can see it in its full (okay, it won't be blocked by then so probably mostly-full) glory on Friday.  This has been SUCH a fun knit.  Admittedly, the rows in section 5 and the ruffle are L  O  N  G, but they still don't feel tedious.  The yarn has been lovely, and it's so soft and pretty that I get a little happy *squee* feeling every time I pick it up, even if it's only for half a row or so.  Lots of folks have mentioned that they're contemplating knitting it.  Here's my advice:  Go do it.  Right now.  It's bound to make you happy.

Posts with no pictures are so boring, though.  What to do...  Ooh!  I know.  Here's a picture of the greatest dog who ever lived...

Seriously.  Best. Dog. Ever.  I miss her today.

There's been more work on the vest this week, too.  But, it still looks a whole lot like it did last week, so no pictures of that, either.  Instead, here's a rather frightening picture of me, feeding a big, hairy giraffe (!). 

What can I say, it tickled...  The back story:  I'm sort of obsessed with giraffes.  They're so... improbable looking.  And, one day we heard that there's a zoo in Colorado Springs where you can hang out and feed crackers to giraffes as much as you want (weather permitting).  We went pretty much immediately, and it was all kinds of awesome.

Now, aren't you glad you stopped by this week to catch up on all the knitting progress?  Yeah, I thought so.  Seriously, as soon as I can figure out how to get out from under the wheels of this bus, I'll be back more regularly.  Life has to chill out soon, right?  Here's hoping.

Anyway, I promise something new and exciting next week.  And it probably won't involve giraffes.  No guarantees, though...

Work in Progress Wednesday v.34

I'm back!  And I've been both awake and upright all day -- for the first time since last week.  When last we met, I was getting ready for some dental surgery, complete with anesthesia, and I was -- let's face it -- a nervous wreck.

Friday morning rolled around and I went to the doctor's office, got hooked up to everything, chatted a bit about the latest round of March Madness, and then had someone tapping me on the shoulder saying I was done.  SO weird.  The recovery has been slightly less easy than the procedure.  I have 9 stitches in my mouth, had a bad reaction to the anesthesia (nausea, big time), a bad reaction to the painkillers (more nausea), and a bad reaction to the antibiotics (anyone wanna guess?  that's right -- more nausea).  I've been napping for days.  And I've been knitting a bunch, too.  That part has been fun, at least.

And so, I have a whole ton of progress to show you on my Super Secret Citron.  Ta da!

Does anyone else think it looks like some sort of fuzzy blue seashell at this point?  No?  Just me?  Must be the drugs...  Anywho, along those lines, I'm even smitten with the way the mostly-used yarn cake looks...

Isn't it pretty?

I'm about halfway through section 4 (out of 5 + ruffle) now, and still working through my first skein.  Here's what I've learned in this week's installment of My First Shawl:

• Doubling laceweight yarn isn't terrible, but probably not a great idea for a first timer if it can be avoided
• Pointy needles will make your life much, much, MUCH easier (this has one row that is Kfb every stitch, and purling back through those stitches takes f o r e v e r with blunt needle tips)
• In a 5-section shawl (one that increases in size rather than decreases), you will use as much yarn for the last section and ruffle as you do for the first 4 sections.  Still trying to wrap my head around that one...
• This pattern is totally, completely addictive.

In other news, I'm finishing up the last front of the vest this week. (Did you notice how I said "last front" as if there were 30 of them?  If sort of feels like there were...) This pattern was a bit much for my poor, drug-addled brain to handle while I was all doped up, but I've pulled it out again and am soldiering on.  Here's this week's very minor progress:

Almost there!  Kind of.  Just a few more rows, then we bind off and sew up the shoulders.  Yippee!  I'm cautiously optimistic about picking up stitches around both armholes and the whole front of the vest. Fingers crossed, as usual with this thing!

That's all for me at the moment, though I expect to be back later this week.  I've missed being here lately!  Until then, head over to Tami's for WIPW and see what everyone else is up to.  All the cool kids are doing it.

Work In Progress Wednesday v.33

I have to admit, Friday's Mini Mochi Marathon of Sock sort of knocked me off my knitting mojo for a few days.  I think I only managed about 30 minutes of knitting this weekend, and I'm totally okay with that.  It's nice to have a break every so often, especially when Spring is finally starting to spring around here (Yay!).

I haven't entirely forsaken my favorite hobby, though.  There's been some progress on the cable lace vest (sometimes known as The Vest From Hell) this week.  I finished the back, and have picked up the stitches for the final front panel.

As soon as I can sit down and write out the directions for it so they make some kind of sense, I'll get it knocked out.  Then only the ribbing around the arm holes and the shawl collar to go (that's still kind of a lot isn't it? sigh.)...

I also got started this week on my Super Secret Citron.  Here are some things I've learned so far:

• Lace weight yarns vary A WHOLE BUNCH in gauge.
• The tension caused by using a size 6 circular needle to knit 3 stitches of eensy-skinny yarn will cause the stitches to go flying off the needle. Repeatedly.
• It's okay to let the guru from your knitting group show you how to get started after you've cast on and flailed about 37 or 38 times.

Okay, really it's not as bad as I make it sound.  It is a learning curve though, using lace weight for the first time to knit one's first shawl.  It turns out that I needed to double the Filatura, and once I did, things looked much more promising.  I think I've got a good start going now, and am super excited to see it come together.  My guru also suggested a provisional cast on to make it easier to pick up the first stitches, and that was completely brilliant.  It made life SO much easier -- I highly recommend it.  Here's how my bit-o-shawl is looking so far...

And here's how it looks really close up (the first pic is better for color, though)...

I love how you can already see the pattern forming.  Yay!

I'm having oral surgery on Friday morning (Boo!), so I'll either have a metric ton of progress to share with you all next week or else none at all, depending on how much vicodin I'm forced to swallow.  Funny, but this reminds me of that viral video that went around a while ago with the spiders on drugs.  If you come back next week and my citron looks like the crack spider made it  -- be kind, okay?

And on that note, go check out all the other WIPW-ers and see what they've been up to lately.  It's some seriously good stuff!

Work In Progress Wednesday v.32

Another Wednesday, and I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere.  Yay!  In fact, I've made so much progress on the Yummy Mochi socks (Ravelry link) that I'm saving the pictures for FO Friday.  Just an inch or two of foot left, and then the toe.  I'll be really glad to see these finished for lots of reasons.  Obviously, I'm super excited to wear them.  But I'll also be glad to be done with this pattern.  It's getting to be a bit dull.  I chose it for its simplicity, to best show off the scrummy yarn so it's my own fault.  But I'll be glad to do something other than K3 P1.  The pattern is well written, and the socks fit great, so I'm not knocking it at all - promise!  It's just time for something new.

Speaking of yummy yarn, I'll have a fair bit left after my socks are done, and have been contemplating starting a sock yarn blanket.  Have you guys seen these?  The projects on Ravelry are kind of mind- blowingly great.  But they also look like a mountain of work.  So what do you think?  Should I give it a go? Or am I crazy for even thinking about it?  Help me decide?

 The Vest From Hell has also come along a bit this week.  The right front is finished(!), and I've picked up stitches and started knitting up the back now.  Hopefully, no more problems and the rest will go quickly.  Here's this week's oddly-colored shot (sorry - I'm tired of looking at it, too!)...

Finally, with finish line in sight for my socks, I've got a new project percolating and can't wait to dive in!  I'm knitting a Super Secret Citron.  This'll be my first time knitting with lace weight, and my first shawl, so I'm a little nervous, but I'm super excited to get started.  I can't tell you what it's for yet, but it's a gift.  And hopefully, I'll be able to spill the beans soon because I'm pretty excited about it.  Speaking of excited, check out this gorgeous yarn...

It's Filatura di Crosa Nirvana, and it's so, so, so soft.  And light.  And the color is gorgeous.  I hope I can do it justice.  If all goes well, I'll get to cast on this weekend, so you'll get a peek at the shawl-to-be next week.  New projects are so fun!

Speaking of fun, head over to Tami's Blog and check out everyone else's new projects this week -- there are bound to be some amazing things happening over there!

Work In Progress Wednesday v.31

Not so much knitting this week, I'm afraid.  I was sitting here, staring at a pile of unknitted sock, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I hadn't gotten more done, but then I remembered...

•  My bathroom sink is fixed, and water actually runs *through* it now.  Epic.
• Mr. Right's garage stairs are once again whole and functional, until the next time he bashes into them with the truck...
•  The fridge is full of food, and we'll both have home cooked meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner all week.  Yum.
• And, oh yeah... I've spent the last 2 days in meetings all through my lunch hour.  No knitting lunches for me.  Far less satisfying than the rest of the distractions on the list, but part of the price of being gainfully employed, I guess.

 Anyway, that's not to say there's been NO progress, just precious little.  Sock #2 is bigger...

I thought about trying to get the stripes to match on these, but it seemed like so much hassle, and it's not like they won't still go together.  Right?  Hope so, because this is one pair of socks that's definitely more fraternal than identical.  I still love them a whole lot, though.

Oh yeah, the vest.  Sheepishly guilty admission time:  I ran home and cranked through a few measly rows so I'd have some progress to report, but that's about it.  The right front is all done with decreases, has the right number of stitches, and just a couple inches to go before I bind off and start working up the back.

 I gotta say, you guys definitely keep me honest!  If not for WIPW, I'd have stuffed this thing under the bed a while ago.  Thanks for the motivation!  And if you need more of that, go check out all the other Works In Progress this Wednesday.  There's some cool stuff going on out there!

Work In Progress Wednesday v.30

Yay, week 30!  I am proud to say that I have yet to miss one of these little outings, even if I have little (or nothing at all) to contribute.  What does that say about me?  That I need to get a life, is what it says.  Ah well, I'm sure I will some day, right after I finish knitting (Ha!)

So here's what's up around here this week:  Yummy Mochi socks continue to progress.  And since some folks have asked - the colorway is called "Spice Market".  Anyway, I'm happy to announce that they are now "socks" instead of "sock" by virtue of this:

That, my friends is 2.5 rounds of 1x1 ribbing on size 1 needles.  It is all that exists of sock #2, but I'm still pretty happy about it, given that it means sock #1 is done done DONE.  Whee!  And sock #1 is so soft, and so squishy and so warm that I'm dying to give it a companion.  Mini Mochi as the cure for Second Sock Syndrome?  Entirely possible.

And, because I am a masochist, I went and picked up the cable lace vest (which henceforth will be known as The Vest From Hell) again and started working on it.  I've managed to start working up one of the fronts now, and it's possible this might find its way to the finish line some day.  Maybe.  I so wish I didn't hate this pattern, but my gosh.  I really do.  I hate that it requires so much thinking, and 2nd guessing, and fixing of errors (the pattern's not mine), and the writing out of lines so I can keep it all straight. Blerg.  It's character building, right?  Well, I've built about 8 rows of character in the last day or so.  Here it is, in all its poorly-lit (sorry!) glory:

The FOs that come out of this pattern are really, really pretty.  So I'll finish.  And then I'll reward myself with some squishy yarn... because it's better for me than chocolate.

And now I'm off to check out everyone else's Wednesday Progress -- there's so much lately!  It's kind of awesome.

WIPW v.27 - and a Giveaway Winner!

First things first:  Thanks SO much to everyone who entered last Wednesday's pattern giveaway, and especially to everyone who wandered over to Eskimimi's blog to offer cheering thoughts and snag some amazing deals on patterns.  14 folks entered the giveaway for my extra Snowbaby Hat pattern, and here's what Random.org's number generator well... generated:

Lucky #7 is bbatting!  The Snowbaby Hat pattern has been zapped off to you this evening.  Enjoy!

And now for those pesky works in progress...  The Burbery Inspired Cowl is all done, save for grafting the ends together, so we'll save the pictures for Friday.  Suffice to say, this was a super quick knit, and I'm excited to wear it.

In other news, the cable lace vest situation isn't as dire as previously thought.  Phew!  Turns out I was supposed to measure from the side, not from the front (where there were loads of short rows put in), and the length isn't too far from where it should be.

I have to say, I'm not loving this pattern.  It has complicated instructions that look like this:

BO 5 sts at beg of nxt row, work 1 row even, then BO 5 at beg of next row. Then dec 1 st at armhole edge on every row 5 times, then every other row 3 times.  AT THE SAME TIME: dec 1 st at neck edge on nxt row, then every 6th row 3 times,then every 8th row once.

And that's just too much for my wee little head to track all at once.  So I've resorted to this:

High tech, no?  Writing it by hand helps me to process, but I can't quite see how I'm going to squeeze all of these 1 jillion rows into the next 4" of knitting.  There's also at least one  error in the pattern which left me confused for a while.  Bleh.  I'll pick it up again soon, as I'm determined to get it done.  I'm just worried it's not going to fit at all, but we'll see...

My other WIP this week is my stash.  I got all excited to post new pics to the 2011 Flash Your Stash thread on Ravelry, and so took a new stash picture:

I was dismayed to find that the current stash is actually smaller *gasp* than last year's...

How can that be?

But, if you look closely, you'll see that there's been quite a bit of turnover from one year to the next, which made me feel a little bit better.  This also made me feel a little bit better...

I had no choice, really.  The scrawny stash needed feeding!  And two skeins isn't all that much.  And I'm in LOVE with the colors.  And I'll be casting on new socks tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

And now, if you've made it through all of that babbling, go check out everyone else's WIPW entries for this week.  They're probably less wordy.

WIPW v.26 - and a Wee Giveaway!

Brrrrrr.  It's cold.  Like really. really cold.  As in, the last time the thermometer crawled past 0 (that's "zero", folks) was some time on Monday afternoon.  This California girl is not accustomed to sub-zero temps, and not intending to become accustomed, thankyouverymuch.

All that to say I finished the Chevalier mittens last weekend!  So you don't get to see them until Friday.  And then we can all play "Spot The Boo Boo" because I didn't see it until I was binding off and my hands were too cold to frog back and fix it.  It's making me twitch a little bit, but I'm trying to live with it.  They are keeping my hands pretty warm in the midst of all this weather, so I guess I can't complain too much.

I made some good progress on the Cable Lace Vest this week, but Houston... We have a problem.

I reached the end of the bust increases and am ready to divide for the armholes now.  So I took a good hard look at the pattern.  I'm supposed to continue on until the length is 20".  Umm.  Right.  I'd say it's right around 24" right now.  Le sigh. 

What I really need to do is sit down and go over the numbers, check the gauge, make sure I'm measuring from the right place, and make a concrete plan for next steps.  What I did instead was cast on for the Burberry Inspired Cowl that's been sitting on my Ravelry favorites list for ages.  Did I mention it's cold here?

I have 2 skeins of grey alpaca yarn that I bought at the National Western Stock Show a couple of weekends ago that are SO soft.  And I had the right size needles (even if they are my mom's 20 year old plastic needles that have no point whatsoever at the tips).  And as I think I might've mentioned, it's COLD.  I think that totally justifies it.

So last night, I learned how to do a provisional cast on using this video.  Apparently, there are eleventy billion ways to do a provisional cast on, but this one seemed straightforward and worked even though I had to switch it around and do it left-handed.  Bonus.  So at lunch today, I cast on and worked the first handful of rows.  It seems like it'll take about as long to knit the cowl as it will to graft the stitches together when I'm finished.  And the fact that it's an incredibly simple pattern that I can knit while multi-tasking is attractive, too.  In short, I'm loving it.

And I must say, the color of the leftover mitten yarn that I used for the cast-on looks lovely with the grey cowl yarn.  Hmm....  Maybe a pair of striped fingerless mitts with leftovers?  I'll have to give that some thought.

Oh! And I almost forgot:  Yesterday, I stumbled across a giveaway sponsored by the lovely and talented Eskimimi from Eskimimi knits, the Blog Hub group on Ravelry.  She's giving away some gorgeous handspun yarn.  She's also having a bit of a rough go at the moment and is having a huge sale on all of her patterns.  I bought the whole lot for $10, which is a screaming deal.  And,

*****THIS IS THE FREE GIVEAWAY PART (in case you want to skip to the chase)*****

...Since I already purchased the Snowbaby Hat Pattern to knit for Mr. Right's mom for Christmas, I now have two of them.  So I'm giving one away.  Leave a comment on this post, and go visit Eskimimi's blog to see if there's anything that suits your fancy (no purchase required) between now and midnight Colorado time next Tuesday.  I'll randomly draw a winner who'll receive my extra Snowbaby Hat Pattern.  Easy peasy.  I'm happy to send the PDF anywhere, and if you'd rather have a hard copy, I'll even print it out and mail it off - also anywhere.

Once you've left your comment, head over and check out all of the other WIPW folks this week. There are a ton of cool projects to see!

Disclaimer:  This giveaway is sponsored by no one but me.  I didn't even ask Eskimimi's permission, though I might should've.  Hope she doesn't mind...

Work In Progress Wednesday v.25

I'm SO on the ball this week that I'm actually posting my WIPW entry early.  Apparently, miracles do still happen.  Unfortunately, none of them are happening in the area of my current knitting progress, but hey... I'll take 'em wherever I can get 'em.

And so.  First up:  MITTENS! 

Mitten #2 is coming along.  As you might expect, it's much easier to navigate this time now that I have one under my belt.  I knocked round 33 out while I waited at the car wash this afternoon -- only 60 more to go, plus one thumb.  I'm hoping to wear them this weekend, but not exactly holding my breath.

I also managed a bit of progress on the cable lace vest (about to be re-dubbed:  The Vest That Wouldn't Die).  I'm almost to the armholes now, and I swear it'll start looking different soon.  I hope...

This shot is much closer to true color than the others.  Turns out the lighting is better at Mr. Right's house.  Who knew?  Anyway, this is what the mittens and vest really look like.  Previous pics have been a bit off.  Some day the sun will stay up past 5 o'clock and I'll actually be able to take decent pictures again.  At least, that's what they tell me.

Don't forget to head over to Tami's blog and check out all the other WIPW progress!  There's a metric ton of it these days -- and it's super fun to see what everyone's working on. 

Work In Progress Wednesday v.24

Welcome to the WIPW that almost wasn't!  It's snowing around these parts this evening and my 45 minute commute took just about 2.5 hours this afternoon.  I was beginning to think I might make it home in time for FO Friday.  But I'm here!  And I've got a big pile of projects (still!) in the hopper!

There's not been much knitting going on lately.  We went to the rodeo this weekend!  The National Western Stock Show is in town, and we've been meaning to go check it out since we moved here.  Big fun.  But that's a whole other blog post.  Last night?  Hockey game!  Mr. Right's company has a box at the Pepsi Center and we got free tickets to the Avalanche game.  They're not the Sharks, but they'll do in a pinch.  More big fun.

All that to explain the sad lack of progress going on over here.  But here's where we are...

The baby hat for Sudden Expression's Preemie Hat Drive is coming along.  Just the decreases to go, and then I'm gonna whip out another one.  You should, too.

The cable lace vest is still creeping along, too.  I tried hard to make some progress at lunch today, but my brain was on a thousand different things, and one of the ladies in my lunch time knitting group is redoing her kitchen, and the net result of an hour's knitting was that I ended up in the exact same place as I started.  Sigh. It doesn't look much different than it did last week, so you get the arty macro shot this time (for a little variety).   I'm really hoping I'll be able to wear this while it's still cool enough.  The race is on!

And finally, MITTENS!  I finished mitten #1, and got the cuff going on #2.  I don't want to give too much away, so here's mitten #1 inside out along with the beginnings of #2.  I am 100% in love with these, they're so warm and squishy and cozy.  I can't wait to get the 2nd one finished.  I'm pretty sure once I get them on I'll take them off some time around April.

That's it for me this week.  Hopefully I'll be able to get something off the needles in time to share with y'all on Friday.  Fingers crossed!

Oh, and in case you missed it -- My misadventures in yarn dyeing have taken a turn for the better.  You can catch up on the riveting saga here.

Work In Progress Wednesday v.22

Wednesday again?  Already?  You wouldn't know it from the state of my knitting, which looks sadly similar to the way it did last week.  Mr. Right has been working all kinds of cuckoo hours (16 or so a day during our vacation - boo!), and it's kind of thrown me for a loop, schedule-wise. 

Anyway, I've made some good progress on Chevalier Mitten #1 this week.

All was well until I figured out that I fumbled the thumb hole.  Sigh.  I have to rip out about 6 rounds of what you see here and fix it.  Still learning about the whole chart business, definitely the hard way this time.  Ah well.  Don't be too surprised if I show up next Wednesday being all pleased with my progress and showing you a picture that looks remarkably like this.  It'll mean that I've gone twelve rows counting the backward and forward progress.

Faced with a boo boo at some point in the far back reaches of my knitting, I did what any self-respecting knitter would do.  I reached into my knitting bag and dug around until I found something else to work on.  Yep, the cable lace vest is back, but just barely.  I had an hour to work in it at lunch today, but only managed a few rows since it took me about 30 minutes to find my place in the pattern.  It's been a   l o n g time since I've worked on it.  If you peer closely at the middle, you'll see an inch or so of virgin knitting territory.  Feel free to Ooh and Aah.

I promise it'll look different next week.  Really.  But not for a while, as Mr. Right is taking me out to dinner. Yay!

For more (lots and lots more this week) crafty goodness, head over to Tami's blog and see what all the other WIPW-ers are up to!

Work In Progress Wednesday v.21

Here we are, at the very last Wednesday of 2010 -- the year knitting went from something I did here and there to Knitting -- A Way of Life.  Seriously.  I'm never not knitting *something* these days.

I finished the Snowbaby Hat just in time for Christmas (I couldn't wrap it til Christmas morning because it took forever to dry after blocking), and Mr. Right's mom loved it.  It earned me the biggest hug I've ever gotten from her and a kiss on the cheek.  And then she checked my finishing work, proclaimed that I had done a beautiful job and hugged me again.  I couldn't have asked for a better reaction.  Phew!

I'm determined to finish Eliza this week, now that my finger is mostly healed, so check back on Friday for the final unveiling.  I promise!  For now, she still looks like this:

I've also unearthed that cable lace vest that got buried during the holidays.  I'm resolving to pick it up again, but just for a little refresher, here's what it looked like when I stuffed into my knitting back about 6 weeks ago...

It's pretty, and I'm excited to wear it.  But lately, I've become inexplicably obsessed with making mittens.  It's supposed to snow like crazy here tomorrow, and what sort of self-respecting knitter goes into an impending blizzard with only one pair of mittens???  Not this one, that's for sure.

And so.  Instead of knitting an elephant ear or the top of a vest, I cast on for a new pair of MITTENS!  I love mittens. I love the coziness, I love the super cool patterns that are available, I even love the word.  Mittens. Mittens. Mittens!  Phew. Glad I got that out of my system.  Anyway, after realizing that I had no Progress to report for WIPW, I got up early this morning and cast on for a pair of Chevalier Mittens.  Then I spent the whole morning working on them (I love vacation).  Here's what we have so far, after having tinked a few rows due to the dreaded KBMC syndrome -- that's Knitting Before Morning Caffeine...

That's the back of the hand side, with the beginnings of the cabling.  Here's what the palm side looks like...

I'm loving the yarn and the pattern so far, though this is the first thing that I've knit entirely from a chart and it's a little scary (see tinking, above).

Hope everyone is having a great week.  For more crafty loveliness, head over to Tami's blog and check out everyone else's progress this week.