FO Friday -- Not Quite Dry Edition

Happy FO Friday, y'all!  As promised, I got Narragansett fixed up and blocked this week, but somehow it didn't quite dry until this morning.  And so, what you get is a super quick post, a few cruddy pics and my heartfelt promise to add some details and some better lit photos this evening.  Deal?

I love how this sweater turned out.  The Shepherd's Wool blocked gorgeously and is incredibly soft. (The color is an awesome shade of spring green, contrary to these crap photos -- better coming, promise!)  And warm.  Perhaps a teensy bit too warm for June 1, but let's overlook that little detail, shall we?

The slip stitch cable detail is fun, too.  I like that  it adds a bit of decoration without being fussy.

I followed a fellow Raveler's modification to make the eyelets along the raglan smaller, and I'm glad I did since I think they're plenty visible as it is.  She basically traded a YO in the pattern for an M1,  which worked great.

I also lengthened the arms a smidge, from the recommended 9" to 11".  This worked well for me too, keeping the ribbing off my elbow, which makes me all kinds of happy.

The other change I made was to run a crocheted slip stitch around the inside of the neckline to keep it from falling too far off my shoulders.  If I knit this again, I'd go down a needle size for the neckline to snug things up just a little more, but this tutorial from the Yarn Harlot was hugely helpful.

(I'll upload a pic of this feature tonight, promise!)

And that's it for now as I'm running out the door to work.  Happy weekend!  And happy Fiber Arts Friday, too!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.92

Hey y'all!  I haven't forgotten about you, promise.  I do feel like it's been ages since I've managed a post, though.  Apologies for that.  The truth is, things around here are incredibly stressful at the moment and I haven't had the time or concentration skills to get much knitting done at all.  Boo.

As such, I'm *still* puttering along on Narragansett.  I realized, when I started sleeve 2, that I had done some seriously wonky decreases on sleeve 1 (See distraction and stress, above).  Now I'm having to work hard to match the wonkiness on sleeve 2.

No small feat, but it's coming along.  At this rate, I'll be finished just in time to wear it for the Fall.

Since I have nothing of interest to share knittingwise, I'll attempt to distract you with pretty pictures.  It turns out that there's a place in northeastern Colorado called the Wild Animal Sanctuary.  They take in and care for loads of exotic animals who've been abused and mistreated in some way or another, fix them up and give them cushy lives.  It is, all in all, a totally awesome place.

And they let you come in and wander around on walkways that wind over the animal enclosures.  How cool is that?

So on Saturday, we took our stress-addled selves out to the boonies for an afternoon of predators on parade. 

They have loads of lions (who do lots of yawning on Saturday afternoons)...

And tigers...

And bears.  Oh my!  (Sorry, couldn't resist)

There's even a camel who hangs out with a couple of horses in a pasture.

And several packs of wolves...

But seriously, the grizzly bears had the most personality.  It was so much fun to watch them play and tussle and blow bubbles in their pool...

... without a care in the world.  There's a lesson for me in there somewhere.

Meanwhile, I'm sure some actual knitting has taken place this week over at WIPW.  Go see for yourselves.  For my part, I'll try hard to have something more interesting to show you all next week.

Cheers!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.90

Welcome to the latest installment of Work in Progress Wednesday, where this week's theme is Knit it Again, Sam.  Seriously, I thought I'd be done with Narragansett by now, but alas.  I finished sleeve 1 according to the measurements on the pattern, tried it on, then promptly sat down and ripped out the ribbing on the sleeve so that I could extend the pattern 2 more inches. For a quick refresher, here's how it looked last week:

Sigh.  I'm not sure what happened exactly, but somehow my 3/4 length sleeve stopped just past my elbow.  Not a good look.  And it's not like I have monkey arms or anything...  Ah well, better to have it right than done and wrong, yes?  Here's how it looks now (with diminishing sunlight):

 It's all fixed up, and I've just picked up the stitches for sleeve #2.  Again.  Stay tuned for happier results next week.

Discouraged by ripping out a huge sleeve chunk, I turned to the simple little washcloth that I started on our camping expedition last week.  Nothing like some good, mindless TV knitting to boost the spirits, right?  Umm.

Here's how it looked last week:

Somewhere around row 49 (of 60), I realized my stitches weren't quite lining up.  I tinked a row.  Still wrong.  Repeat.  Still.  In all, I tinked 5 rows, then pulled out the needle and frogged 7 more.  I realized somewhere along the way that I was working the wrong side rows on the right side.  How is this possible?  (*hint:  it's not).  I had ripped out the whole blinking thing by the time I read the instructions again and remembered that this chart started on the bottom left with a wrong side row, instead of in the usual way.  More sigh.

Here's how it looked Friday afternoon:

(*Note: This is merely a re-enactment.  I didn't have enough wits about me at the time to capture the carnage with the camera)

And so.  I cast on again and knitted like a fiend until I finished, just to make a point.  To who?  Not sure, but I'm certain I taught that pattern a thing or two.  Regardless, it's done and cute.  And you'll get to see it on Friday.

To say I've been distracted of late seems like a bit of an understatement.  Hopefully things around here will smooth out soon, or else I'll have to give up knitting in favor of napping in the fetal position.

If you're in the mood for some actual forward motion, I suggest heading over to WIPW for some more coherent crafty goodness.

See you Friday, hopefully not from the fetal position!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.89

Holy cow, people!  It's been two whole weeks since I've been here to post.  That's definitely some sort of record, and one I'm not anxious to break.  I missed you guys!

All is well here.  Mr. Right and I decided to host a bunch of friends for Easter dinner, which was awesome and lots of fun.  Unfortunately, a few days later we decided to go on a 4-wheeling expedition...



with a bunch of his friends trekking for 4 days through the wilderness from the Colorado border into Moab, Utah on the Kokopelli trail. 



Super fun, but the combination of preparing for both knocked me out of commission for doing anything else (even knitting) over the last couple of weeks.



But now we're back, and normal life can resume... at least a little bit.  I didn't want desert dust on my Narragansett, so I couldn't take it as a trail project.  Boo.  I've managed to almost finish sleeve #1, and moving on to sleeve #2 any minute now.  Weird, but the sleeves are taking longer than the entire rest of the sweater.  No matter, our weather is still springy enough that I'll be able to squeak out a wearing or two before it gets too warm.

I did manage to get a bit of knitting done on the road, though.  I dove into the Dishie stash and came up with some awesome orange kitchen cotton that seemed destined to become a Yoshi wash cloth.  It's about half done now, and would be altogether finished if I could knit in a moving vehicle without barfing all over the place.  As it is, the dramamine and I could only manage to knit when we were stopped on the trail.  Pretty decent progress, considering.

And now, a wash cloth story (exciting, no?)...  a million or so years ago, I knitted a Snoopy wash cloth and blogged about my plans to knit an army of them to curtail our paper towel use.  I wasn't sure how it would work out, but lots of folks chimed in with encouraging words, which was very cool.  I haven't managed to squeak another of these out until now, but I gotta say, I love the heck out of that thing and I use it ALL the time.  It scrubs tile and cleans baseboards and mops up messes in the fridge (not all simultaneously, mind you.  I promise it gets laundered in between), like a champ.  And it still looks pretty good:

The moral of the story is:  Knitted wash cloths = Awesome.  You should make some.  But first, you should check out all the WIPW entries over at Tami's this week.  There are bound to be a zillion cool things happening over there.

You should check back in here too from time to time.  I'll have some fun news to share in the next couple of weeks (teaser alert!!), and I promise to start blogging on a more regular basis again.  Who wants to miss that?  Didn't think so.  See you soon.

Cheers!

PS.  Thanks for all the fun comments about the tree pictures!  Turns out it's a crabapple tree.  Go figure!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.87

Welcome back to Narragansett-land, everybody!  I swear, I'm going to get this sweater finished soon, just not soon enough.  It might still make the Easter deadline, though!

This week, despite having almost no time to knit, I managed to finish and bind off the waistband.  Now I'm slowly (and with much hatred for knitting sleeves on dpns), working my way through sleeve #1.  I would totally magic loop these if only I had a cable long enough to make it work, but alas.  Some day, I'll get my Christmas present from Mr. Right (ETA September -- ugh), and this will stop being an issue.  Until that magical day, I'll keep fiddling with these things.

Can't complain too much, though.  It really is going pretty quickly.  If only I could figure out how to avoid all this weird gappy business in the underarm (sorry about the blur!).

Thoughts, anyone?  Barring any flashes of brilliance that might show up in the comments, I'll just stitch up the holes with the tail when I'm done.  Worse things could happen, right?

Since that's all I have to report on the knitting front (soon people, I promise!), I thought I'd share some pictures of my favorite tree which spent last weekend bursting out with springtime.

I LOVE this tree.  I have no idea what it is, but it puts on this amazing show for a few weeks every year and it's all kinds of awesome.  It's also filled to the brim with bees to such an extent that you can actually hear the hum from 10 or so feet away.  The whole thing is very cool.

And fleeting, since we went from sunny and 84 on Sunday to 34 and snowing like crazy today.  It makes me extra glad I managed to snap a few pictures before all the blossoms get snowed off.

That's it for me this week, now I'm off to check out the rest of the WIPW entries.  See you there!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.86

True confession time:  I really, really love knitting sweaters.  And when I'm knitting them I get all sorts of obsess-y and become very knitting monogamous until I'm done with whatever sweater I'm feeling obsess-y about.  And that, my friends, makes for a whole string of really boring WIPW posts that are all about the same thing. 

Sorry.

But not sorry enough to cast on something else to stir up the pot a bit.  So this week, you get Narragansett.  Again.



It's longer now.  I'm just starting the ribbing tonight.  Two or so inches of that and then it's sleeve city, baby.  It's all very exciting, at least for me.

In other news, we're burning up around here.  A wildfire broke out yesterday about 10 miles away in the midst of sustained 50 mph winds with gusts up to 90 mph.  Within a few hours, it was about 5 miles away.  Here's what our sky looked like last night...



It's still burning uncontrolled, but not moving closer so far today.  We've got all the important papers and the sentimental stuff that can't be replaced gathered up and ready to go, just in case.  But we're really, really hoping it doesn't come to that.  I'll let y'all know if things get really squirrelly, but until then, assume we're fine and I'm still sleeve-obsessed.

Now, go visit all the other WIPW entries for lots more yarn and hopefully less peril.  :)

ps.  Also linking to Keep Calm Craft On today since it seems appropriate somehow.  Check them out too, if you're so inclined.

Work in Progress Wednesday v.85

Happy Spring, everybody!  I'm super duper glad to see it arrive this year, but a little disappointed that we didn't even get one big spring snowstorm.  Love those giant wet flakes that appear only in the spring, and that melt after a day or so.  Ah well, there's always next year.  Now, bring on the flip flops!

Other than the weather, not much has changed around here recently.  I'm still (when I can scrape together a few minutes to knit) working on Narragansett.  It's coming along.  I've finished the waist shaping now, and about to start the cable detail that carries down the front and into the hem.

I should finish up the body this week, and then get started on the sleeves.  With a little luck, it'll be done by Easter and I'll sneak a few times to wear it in before the weather gets too hot.

Boringly enough, that's all I've got to report from these parts today.  I do have some pretty Adventure in the Mountains pics to share, but you'll have to come back this weekend for those.  In the mean time, go check out all of the other WIPW entries springing up today.  There are zillions of them these days, and all of them are pretty awesome.

Cheers!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.83

Howdy, peeps!  It was springtime in Colorado today, sunshine-y and warm and lovely.  But by the time you read this it will be cold and snowing, as Wednesday's high temperature is supposed to be just less than half of Tuesday's.  Ah well, I guess that's what makes it Spring, right?

Speaking of Spring, I've been trying in vain to get Narragansett moving along fast enough so that I'll actually be able to wear it this year.  So far, it's not looking that good...

I've just finished the raglan increases (this is a top down pattern), and am about to separate for the sleeves.  Maybe another inch or so, I think.  I'm also about 3/4 of the way through the first skein of yarn, so I think we'll be good on that front.

The modified eyelets aren't really that eyelet-y, but I don't think I mind too much.  I do love the cable that runs along the raglan, though.

That's it on the knitting front this week.  Hopefully, things will look much more exciting by next week.  And, I'm tentatively planning on tinking the stupid mittens this week too, and trying once again to get some forward progress rolling.  No promises, though!  There's a new pair of socks calling my name, and the promise of no tinking baggage and new yarn is a pretty powerful draw.  You'll just have to check back next week to see which way things went.

Finally, in case you missed the post on Monday, I'm giving away a skein of Madeline Tosh Merino Light this week, and you have until Saturday morning to enter.  Go check it out!  And then go visit all the other WIPW folks and see what they're up to this week.  Knowing them, it's probably something exciting.

Work in Progress Wednesday v.82

Happy leap year y'all!  Didja miss me?  I'm freshly returned from Stitches West and all the craziness that let up to it, and super happy to be home and getting back to WIPW this week.

Stitches was great.  Calfornia was great.  Seeing my all my awesome girlfriends (and remembering that I have lots of awesome girlfriends) was super great.  It was all so fantastic that it will get its own post this weekend, and you'll want to check it out because there's a giveaway involved.  I won't say what it is, but it might be yarn, and it might or might not involve the words Tosh and/or Madeline (not necessarily in that order).  Because I love you guys!  So don't forget to come back and get all entered and whatnot.  Okay?

You may remember this pre-trip picture of my nicely caked yarn for my next project, Narragansett...

And all of you were kind enough not to point out how I was a complete idiot to think I'd be knitting through 3 skeins of yarn on a 5-day vacation.  Thanks for that, but you would've been sooo right.  I toted all 3 of those yarn cakes out to California and back, and managed to knit just under half of one of them.  So much for wishful thinking, right?  Anyway, here's how it's looking now:

This is a top-down sweater, so what you're seeing is the boat neck and the beginnings of the raglan increases for the sleeves.  I'm loving working with this yarn, but I'm a bit worried that it's so squishy the sweater might not hold its shape.  It's feeling very loosey goosey at the moment, even though I'm knitting just a smidge tighter than gauge.

I've also been following a modification that someone used for smaller eyelets on either side of the raglans, and I'm a bit on the fence about how it's working out.  I really like the idea of having smaller holes, but I'm not sure it's working out too well.

This picture is as close as I can get to illustrating my point with bad light and a jet-lagged brain,    I may soldier on a bit longer, we'll see.  This is a fun and pretty zippy knit, so undoing a bit of it won't be too much of a disaster if it goes that way.

In other news, Tink over at Master of a Thousand Things FINALLY received her swap package from me!  I'm a little bummed that it took so long, but so glad she's finally got her hands on her goodies and really excited that I can finally spill all my secrets.  She's blogging about her gifts now, and has opened all of her hand knit gifts in her first two days so I can finally give them their time in the FO Friday spotlight.  Woot!

I can't decide if the opening or the watching of the opening is more fun.  I'm a smidge overly happy about both, I think.  Anyway, after you stop by Tink's blog, go check out the rest of the (zillion) WIPW entries.  They're totally worth the trip.

See you Friday!

The Blog Hub Swap -- Day 6

Day 6 of The Blog Hub Swap meets Work in Progress Wednesday -- it's a knit blogger's perfect storm!  Let's get to it then, shall we?

Today's beautiful parcel looked like this before I ripped the paper to shreds daintily removed the contents of the package.  And inside, as we've all come to expect was such a fun surprise!  It's this.

A very shiny, very British, very be-flagged pencil case.  Love!  It even has *gasp* multiple compartments, and a bright yellow zipper.

You may not know, though clearly Chrissy does, that I'm a super stationery geek.  I get abnormally excited about pens and pencils and papers and organizing.  It makes me all swoony just writing about it.  Even better?  Inside my new pencil case, were 3 super amazing pens!

They're Frixion eraseable gel pens.  Eraseable gel pens? So cool!  And I have black, blue and hot pink.  Woot!

Only one day left -- I can't believe it's amost over.  One more shiny package, then all that remains is for me to pace around impatiently waiting for my package to reach its destination so I can live vicariously through my person's week-o-pressies.

As for the Work in Progress Wednesday portion of today's festivities, I have some shocking news.  I have absolutely. nothing. going. on.  I don't think this has ever happened before, and frankly it's weirding me out.  After much frantic knitting, the Duckie Socks are done, done, DONE!  And so cute.  You'll have to take my word for it until I get back from vacation and can get a proper FO Friday post together.  For now, suffice to say I love them and will try not to wear them out before I can get pictures.  Fingers crossed on that front.

The Mittens of Doom are still firmly in time out.  And so all I have to show you is this:

It's the first three skeins of Shepherd's Wool, fresh off the ball winder and swift so I can swatch for Narragansett, which I desperately wanted to finish in time for Stitches West, but since I leave tonight, I don't think we're quite going to make it.  I'll get a couple of hours of good knitting time on the plane, but there's only so much distance between Denver and San Jose, and somehow it doesn't seem to be enough to pull off a whole sweater.  It will sure be fun to try, though.

Even though I'll be heading off into the wild blue yonder tonight, I have one more day of Blog Hub Swap to share with you, and I think it's going to be an extra exciting one, so be sure to check back in for the grand finale tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I promise to come back with lots of new yarn and goodies and pictures and stories next week, and might even check in once or twice while I'm away.

Cheers!