FO Friday -- Sock It To Me edition

Happy Friday, knitting peeps!  As previously discussed, I have *finally* finished my beloved Hedgerow Socks.  Yay!  We have quite a history together, me and these socks. 

First, I tried them in some pretty charcoal grey yarn.  It looked nice, but I convinced myself that I'd done something horribly wrong.  And no matter how much I stared at the sock or the pattern, I couldn't see what the problem was.

This was largely because there was no problem with the socks, only one with my little pea brain.  (As an aside... I'm amazed at how often I do this to myself!)  Unfortunately, I didn't figure that out until long after I'd frogged my poor little sock.

After several months of hibernation, I dove in again (Did I mention that I really like this pattern?) with some bright red Knit Picks Stroll tonal that I'd gotten as a gift.  This time, things went off without a hitch.

I knit the pattern as written, except that I grafted the toe instead of the prescribed round toe.  They just seem to fit me better and I don't mind the whole kitchener business.  I LOVE these socks.  They're cute and comfy and even a little bit Christmasy. 

What more can you ask for?  How 'bout lots of other fabulous FOs from oodles of talented crafters, and even more fibery goodness?  Lucky you, you can have both!

Have a great weekend, too!

Work In Progress Wednesday v.68

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving, US peeps!  Happy WIPW to everyone else. 

I spent a TON of time knitting last weekend, since I was on my own and dodging chores like crazy.  I have to say, it was really fun to just play hooky from everything and knit in my pyjamas as much as I wanted.  I actually have some progress to show for it, too:

I finished two Puffs from my super-lovely swap yarn, but you don't get to see those til Friday (see "finished" above).  I'm loving knitting these little buggers, especially in all the spectacular yarn that showed up in the swap packages.

I also finished Sock!  Man, that was a long time coming.  I was so excited that I dove into Sock the Second pretty much immediately.  It's cruising along at a pretty fast clip now.

I think I have the opposite of Second Sock Syndrome -- once I finally manage to squeeze the first one off the needles, I knit like crazy until I have a pair.  Weird, no?  Anyway, I'm hoping to wear these before the end of the weekend, but we'll see. 

And, I started on the Peerie Mittens.  The cashmere cuff-lining is all done and soooooooooo soft.  Love.  The ribbing has started, but I'm having some laddering issues with the colorwork on the dpns and they're making me feel stabby.  It looks like this...

The green is the cuff lining, the red at the bottom is the provisional cast-on and the rest is the actual part of the cuff that will be visible. It looks kind of odd now, but I have high hopes!

The hopes are kind of long term, though... I've decided that between the puffs and the socks and the mittens that there are WAY too many dpns in my life at the moment, so I'm going to finish the socks before doing any more mittening.  I'm also going to finish swatching and cast on for Lorna Suzanne, since knitting some epic long rows on a nice set of dependable circs sounds like heaven right now.

It also sounds like a great way to start a long weekend.  Hope you all enjoy yours, too!

Work In Progress Wednesday v.67

Welcome to In Between WIPs Wednesday, where everything is just wrapped up or gearing up to start. I hate it when that happens.

First, the really awesome news. Remember Friday, when I was all whiny about not being able to find the mistake in my hat? And when I spent 2 days looking for the error? Yeah, I couldn't find my mistake because there wasn't one. Sometimes I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. Anyway, it's finished and blocked and waiting for its close up on Friday. So no pictures for you today.

Now, I'm about to start on the matching mittens. I'm super excited about them, especially since the cuffs are lined in squishy yarn. The pattern calls for angora, but I had a little bit of leftover cashmere laying around (!), so I'm using that instead. I had high hopes of casting on at lunch today, but today turned out not to have lunch (boo!), so my mittens look like this:

I promise they'll be a bit more photogenic next time.

I've also managed some more roundss on good ol' Sock who's inching ever closer to the finish line, even though it doesn't look like it at all.

Finally, there's a bit of holiday knitting about to start, with a cute little project that I'm dying to show you. Unfortunately, the recipient reads this blog so you won't get a good look until after the gifting happens. Lucky for you, I can show you its current state without revealing too much.

I know, you're over the moon with excitement right now. Really, I'd be farther along with at least 2 of these projects-to-be, but on Saturday the dog and the lawn edging came together in a way that involved 11 stitches, 3 hours at the vet's office and another 3 hours cleaning the Dexter-style bloodbath out of my carpet, and my tile, and my car, and... On the plus side, the vet can now afford that trip to Tahiti he's been dreaming about. On the plus side for reals, the doggie is just fine, and running around with her sewn-together paw like nothing happened. Proof:

Now you should go check out WIPW for some actual in-progress craftiness, instead of in-planning craftiness.

See you Friday!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.66

Howdy, WIPW-ersnappers!

This is a truly bizarre Wednesday.  It's one on which I have pretty much nothing to share with you.  I know!  I can't quite believe it either.  Here's what happened...

Peerie Flooers is sooooo close to done that I don't really want to show it to you and spoil the big reveal.  So you get this. 

Still pretty, right?

I will say knitting the first part of this hat on my Knit Picks Harmony circs was pretty much the most fun I've had knitting.  Ever.  Knitting the last part on my Clover bamboo dpns is way, way, way not as fun.  I'm not quite skilled enough to wrestle 5 dpns and one color of yarn in each hand simultaneously yet.  On the up side, the rounds keep getting shorter, and the likelihood that I might stab someone's eye out with a blunt-tipped bamboo dpn is decreasing proportionally.

The Power Puff swap yarn is finally winging its way to everyone who participated.  Sorry that took so long, but it ended up being more work than anticipated to get everything ready to send out.  Hopefully, you'll think it was worth the wait once the package shows up!

Sock doesn't look any different than the last time it appeared, but it will get some love after the hat's done.  I really need to get these things finished so I can wear them.  I'm missing prime sock-wearing weather as we speak.

And finally, my Lorna Suzanne swatch is just the same as it was last time, too.  I'm trying to decide if it will really be my next project, or if something else might slip in ahead of it.  Sexy vesty?  Peerie mittens?  I have yarn for all 3 of these burning a hole in my stash, so you'll have to tune in next week to see what project bubbles to the surface.

For now, I'll go finish my Crown Decreases of Doom so I can show y'all how it turned out on Friday, and you go check out all the other WIPW projects.  I hear there's Christmas knitting happening out there!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.64

Hey y'all!  It's officially the Wednesday before my sweater class with Ysolda Teague, and you know what that means, right?  Right.  I can think of little else.  I ordered yarn for my next sweater, which has arrived just in the nick of time.

The pattern is Lorna Suzanne (which appears to exist only on Ravelry), a pattern I became instantly smitten with.  Caveat:  The project page makes it look an awful lot like an old lady sweater, worn over a collared blouse and with a little chain holding the collar together, but really, it's not.  Take a look at the finished sweaters -- it's a super cute pattern and I'm looking forward to diving in.

My instructions are to bring a swatch in progress to class on Sunday, so I plan to get that going tomorrow.  Is it bad form to bring a swatch for a non-Ysolda sweater to a Ysolda class, do you think?  I hope not...   I'm having a bit of a hard time getting to the swatch though, as I've finally (barely) started on Peerie Flooers and it's really, super hard to put it down. 

...which is lucky, because I just now realized that I was supposed to do 3 rounds per color and I've done 2 of each.  And then I cut the yarn.  Sigh.  Guess who's frogging 3 colors worth of fair isle tonight?

In happier news, Snug is not making an appearance here this week since I finished it up last weekend.  I'll add the buttons and give you all a proper show and tell on Friday.  Here's a hint:  It's pretty stinking cute.

Over on the back burner, Sock is still trundling along.  I've got another inch or so of foot to go before I start decreasing for the toe.  And then... sock #2.  Some day.  I'm almost sure of it.

Finally, I'm putting together the last mini skeins for the beekeeper's quilt sock yarn swap now that everyone's yarn has arrived, and am hoping to get everything mailed out by this weekend.  Fingers crossed!

Phew!  It's been a busy week.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to get ready for the blizzard we're expecting tonight.  In true Colorado fashion, it was 80 degrees (27 C) yesterday and we're expecting a foot of snow to fall between tonight and tomorrow afternoon.  What's the weather doing in your neck of the woods these days?  Are you building an igloo, or still trying to beat the heat?  Share in the comments!  And then go visit WIPW -- there's amazing stuff happening out there!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.63

OMIGOSH, you guys!  The coolest thing happened this week!

So you know I just finished Angostura, and I've been all gushy and happy about finally having a knit garment that fits, right?  And I'm kind of obsessed with Little Red in the City and what a great book it is, and how I want to knit pretty much everything in it and all that.

Well, Ysolda's latest blog entry popped up in my reader on Friday.  It was titled, "Is Ysolda Coming to a Store Near You?"  And I thought, "Wow, wouldn't that be nice?"  But she lives in Scotland for crying out loud.  Denver seems an unlikely spot for a smallish book tour.  And then I clicked.

YSOLDA IS TOTALLY COMING TO DENVER!

And then...  I went and found the store online, and looked at the list of classes she's teaching, and saw "sold out" listed next to the first two -- but not the last one.  So I started calling the LYS at about 7:45 in the morning.  Curiously, they did not answer the phone.  I went back to work until a more reasonable hour and called back at the stroke of 10, when happily they did answer the phone.  Long story not so short...

I'M TAKING A SWEATER KNITTING CLASS FROM YSOLDA TEAGUE!!!

I got the last spot in the last class on the last day she's here and I've pretty much been jumping up and down ever since.  I'm so excited!  It's not until the 30th, so I have some time to figure out what swatch I'll bring to practice on.  But oh man, did I mention that I'm excited?

Right then. Sorry about the detour.   Back to the order of business today.  It's WIPW.  Again and already.  Jeez, that was a fast week.  I've become completely scattered of late, so today you get quick glimpses of lots of stuff without much progress in any particular direction.

Up first is Snug.  The recipient arrived on Sunday morning, and so Snug will officially be Snug-ette when all is said and done.  It's moving along, though not as quickly as it looks like it should:

(Note to self:  Photographing concrete-colored things on concrete doesn't really show them off very well.)

I think it's going to be pretty cute though, once I find some wooden toggle buttons (anyone got a good source?) and embroider the front a bit to girly it up.


Sock doesn't look much different than last week, which is actually very exciting news:

See how it looks all dull and boring?  I've spent the last inch or so of the stockinette portion practicing my continental knitting. Miraculously, I can't actually see a difference between those stitches and the regular variety, which is kind of awesome.  I'm determined to learn how to do two-handed stranded colorwork so I can feel okay about diving into Peerie Flooers in the next few days, which right now looks like this:

...Pretty, but not really the look I'm going for in the end.  Hopefully, it will be easier than it looks to get this project rolling.  Fingers crossed and all that.

The other really fun thing is that almost all of the yarn has arrived for the Power Puff Yarn Swap I'm hosting.  It's SO fun to find it in my mail box and arrange it all on my kitchen table.  Once the last package shows up, I'll get everything divided up and back out to everyone.   Here's a sneak peak for those of you participating...

Fun, no?

That's it for me this week.  I'm looking forward to checking out everyone else's progress over at WIPW -- we all seem to be picking up steam with the fall knitting.  Yay, fall!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.62

Wanna see me set a land speed record for WIPW this week?  Okay.  Here goes.

Sock!  Back and bigger. 

Back, because I thought I'd lost it in the frenzy to finish Angostura (come back Friday for pics and details and squee-ing!).  I had a day where I was sure I'd left it in Pennsylvania or New Hampshire or on an airplane.  Instead, it was just mushed into the bottom of the carry on bag that I forgot I'd taken.  Bigger because I knit on an airplane from Denver to Kansas City late last night and then back again on another airplane on the way home tonight.

Speedy WIPW for the same reason.  I am stupid tired at the moment.  So.  Tired.  And so I'm going to bed immediately.  But when I wake up, I'm going to go check out everyone else's WIPW. 

Nighty nizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz   

Work in Progress Wednesday v,58

Greetings from Pennsylvania!  I'm officially on vacation as of this morning, so this will be short and sweet.  I'm officially in love with Little Red in the City.  It's so packed with good information, and useful stuff that I think it's worth the money even if you don't want to knit a single pattern in the book.  And I'm a cheapskate, so that's a pretty heavy endorsement.

I'm also officially in love with Angostura.  So in love, that were Angostura a person (instead of a pattern), there might be a restraining order involved.  Seriously.  I knit all the way across the country today, from Denver to Philadelphia.  First, on a jumbo jet from Denver to Washington DC.  Then on an eensy little plane from DC to Philly:

I can't remember the last time I walked across the tarmac to board a plane.  It was a little scary, but I was undeterred.  And, 2000 or so miles later, LOOK what I made:

This is most of the back.  I love how the cables look, and how they create shaping in this pattern.  This one pulls in at the small of the back, and the two smaller designs on the front do the same under the umm... front.  Right then.

Moving on... I also brought Sock with me, but it's definitely taken a back seat to the shiny new project.  I'll get back to it though because it's beginning to be a little bit Fall here, and the socks will be coming out soon.  I know this because I had the first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season the other day.  It's sort of like the first robin of spring, but in reverse. 

Finally, lots of folks expressed interest in doing a sock yarn swap for the Beekeeper's Quilt.  Yay!  I'm happy to host. I still need to work out details, but for now, I have a burning question:  Do we want to use any and all sock yarn, or limit it to superwash?  Voice your vote in the comments.  If you haven't spoken up yet, there's plenty of time to join in.  I think we'll aim for getting things rolling around October 15.  More details to come once I'm home.  Stay tuned!

And now, if you'll excuse me I have some serious vacationing to do.  I promise to hit up all the WIPW blog entries at some point in the near future, though -- right after I hop down to Maryland for a crabcake tomorrow.

 Cheers!

Work In Progress Wednesday v.57

Welcome back to WIPW, where we're seeing RED this week, pretty much everywhere.  There are RED socks, which are poking along at a painfully slow (but still sort of respectable) pace:

I'm excited to have them to wear, but have been distracted by way too many other things lately.  Like knitting a swatch for a RED Angostura, for example:

Doesn't it look cool (if slightly blurry - sorry)?  I'm loving this pattern.  And, per Ysolda's perfectly reasonable instructions, I washed and blocked my little swatch when it was done.  This is my first time using Cascade 220 Superwash, and I was super excited about how soft it got.  It's lovely.

Anyway, the fabric seemed a little loose and the gauge wasn't quite there on the prescribed size 7 circs, so I'm starting over on 6s to see if that helps.  No cables this time since they make it harder to count stitches.  Plus which, I feel like I've got a pretty good feel for them now.  Meet Swatch the Second, also RED:

It's killing me to keep from just diving in and casting on, but after the Vest Fiasco, I'm determined to get this right.  So I'll keep swatching and measuring and counting until I'm super duper sure it's going to fit. 

Finally, I've got a confession... I've been semi-secretly drooling over the Beekeeper's Quilt that's been popping up everywhere lately.  Honestly, I'm kind of dying to make one.  And I'm wondering if there are any other lemmings out there who'd consider jumping in.  Maybe we could swap bits of sock yarn?  Let me know if you're interested.  If enough folks are on board, I'll see what I can put together for next week. 

That's pretty much all that's going on around these parts at the moment.  Hopefully, I'll have more exciting things to share next time.  Speaking of which, in case you missed it, I finally finished the Vest From Hell last week, had a tiny little rant (miniscule, really), and then torched the pattern -- complete with pictures.  Here. 

Now, go check out all the other amazing WIPsters.  They're lovely *and* talented.  What more could you ask for?

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.5

How can it possibly be Wednesday again already?  Man, that was fast.  I'll encourage you now to go check out everyone else's progress on WIPW, since they're all posting beautiful projects this week.  As for me, I'm still plugging away on Avast...

And I gotta say, knitting stockinette sleeves for a boy with serious monkey arms is truly a labor of love.  I'm about 2/3 of the way through sleeve one, just finished the increases and nowhere to go but up from here.  While I'm knitting the sleeves-that-go-on-forever, I have to keep reminding myself how nice it is that he can reach things on the top shelf.  It helps.

I'm also not-really-knitting those Hedgerow Socks.  I'm a few repeats into the leg now and can't quite make sense of the pattern.  At the moment it looks like ribbing gone wrong. 

But I'll keep soldiering on for at least another inch or two and see if things begin to improve.  I am, however, really loving this Pagewood Farm Chugiak sock yarn.  It's soft and cuddly and knits up really nicely. 

Also, I just finally finished reading Mockingjay.  Normally, I'm a pretty fast reader, but I really didn't want this series to end.  Sigh.  I'd feel worse about not having made much knitting progress the last couple of weeks if the book wasn't so darn good, but it was a pretty spectacular grand finale. 

And that's it from me this week.  I'd love to say that I'm sure things will be more exciting next time, but we've still got a whole monkey-boy-length sleeve to go so I'm not holding my breath.  Definitely hoping, though!

Work In Progress Wednesday v.4

Welcome back to Work In Progress Wednesday, where we all get to boast about our progress for the week and check up on everyone else's projects.  Gotta say, a few weeks in and I really look forward to seeing what everyone's been up to -- and I'm adding loads more projects to my Ravelry queue and favorites.

This week has been a busy one for me on lots of fronts.  How's my progress so far on the Avast sweater I'm knitting for Mr. Right?  See for yourself:

Ooh!  Look how far I've gotten in just 7 short days.  Remarkable!

And now, let's take a peek at how those Hedgerow Socks are coming along, shall we?  Here's where we are now:

Fabulous!  It's amazing how much one can accomplish when one puts one's mind to it, isn't it?  As you can see, I'm awfully proud of my progress.

Finally, let's have a look see at how that family photo archiving project is progressing.  That one's been percolating for quite a while now.  I'm sure it must be nearly complete...

Or, maybe I just chucked it all and stuck my nose into the last of the Hunger Games trilogy -- just released after a looooooong year of waiting. Actually, I scored an advance of book #2 at Book Expo last year so I had to wait even longer than everyone else to find out how it all turns out.

In all honesty, if you're not familiar with these books, go find them and read them.  Technically they're for kids, but they're incredibly compelling adventures.  Super fun.  And don't be put off by the jacket copy.  I never read stuff like this and I can't put them down (obviously). 

And really, it's not as bad as all that.  I have almost a whole sleeve of Avast finished.  Honest.  It just didn't seem very photo-worthy.  I promise to behave myself next week.  I get Mr. Right back tomorrow night, and we're heading off on a camping trip on Friday morning, so I expect it to be quiet around here for a few days.  See y'all on the flip side, and happy reading knitting!

Work In Progress Wednesday v.3

Okay, technically, it's actually late on the evening of "Tinking Tuesday", which is lots less fun than Work In Progress Wednesday, but I have to go pick up Mr. Right from the airport (yay!) tomorrow night, and am experimenting with the whole post-this-later feature on Blogger.  We'll see how it goes...

I made lots of progress on Avast over the weekend in Albuquerque, but had to stop at 16" to make sure the armholes will be in the right place and I need Mr. Right for that.  So here it sits, looking like this:

Not bad for a couple of weeks.  I'm looking forward to starting the armholes and knitting some sleeves and doing something slightly more interesting than miles of stockinette.  It is nice once in a while to be able to knit and think entirely about other, more interesting stuff -- like what's for dinner, or how this episode of X-Files is going to end (I <3 Netflix!).

Since I've had to set the sweater aside, I decided to start on those Hedgerow socks I mentioned last week.  I don't have much to show yet, but it's a start.  So far, I have one cuff and one 4-row pattern repeat (minus the 2 rounds I've had to tink back...) done.  Here it is in all its glory...

I have a few things to share about these socks.  First, a public service announcement for anyone considering knitting charcoal sock yarn on size one ebony needles -- DON'T.  If I'm not blind by the end of the week, it will be a minor miracle.  Yeesh.  Secondly, this isn't the most fun pattern in the world to knit.  The rows are only slightly different, which leaves me muttering the stitch pattern (sometimes out loud, some times in my head) to myself over and over and over.  I suppose it will sink in eventually.  But the flip side is that they're super cute, and if I like wearing simply patterned socks, which I do, then I should learn to live with it. This must be what they're referring to when they talk about suffering for one's art...

Can't wait to see what everyone else has been working on this week! 

Work In Progress Wednesday v.2

Wow, that was fast!  It's Work In Progress Wednesday (WIPW).  Again.  And since it was so much fun last week, and since it motivated me to knit like a fiend (or as much like a fiend that someone with a full time job and 2 hours a day in the car can knit), I'm up for another round! 

If you'll recall, last week's WIP looked a lot like this (pretty much exactly, in fact)...

And now (drum roll, please!), it looks like this:

Ta da!  Okay, it's not a ton.  But at least there's some progress, right?  I'm thinking, if I'm going to keep up with this whole WIPW plan, I'll need to have at least one more project on the needles.  For variety's sake.  I mean, I have to think of my readers, right?  I'll take one for the team, I guess.  Come to think of it, I do have some sock yarn calling me.  It's this:

And I'm thinking it might want to grow up to be these.  Cute, no?

They'll have to wait a bit, though.  Tomorrow, I fly off to Albuquerque to visit one of my best friends from 3rd grade for the weekend, while Mr. Right flies off to visit his folks.  Good times shall be had by all.  At least that's what I'm hoping and praying...