Work in Progress Wednesday v.73

Ah, the post-Christmas collapse!  I kind of love it.  I have a whole week of vacation to do not very much at all, and that's a pretty rare thing around here.  So, (surprise, surprise) I've been knitting my face off!  Awesome.

Remember that sleeve I was whining about last week?  Done!  I'm so glad to be on the other side of the whole sleeve business that I'm actually weirdly happy about knitting rows that have 200+ stitches.  Yep, the raglan decreases are in full swing around here...

I'm hoping that I might actually be done with the body of the sweater and on to the button bands and collar before the end of the week, but we'll see.  So far, I'm pretty happy with the way Lorna Suzanne is coming together, even if it does look like it would fit a 6-year-old at the moment. 

I also dug out the formerly mucked-up-and-then-frogged mitten cuff this week and got the ribbing going again.  So far, so good this time.  Fingers crossed.

Look what I found in my Christmas stocking! 

I'm very proud of Mr. Right for venturing into Barnes and Noble and purchasing a knitting magazine.  A move like that is pretty far outside his usual comfort zone.

And then under the tree... this:

I know, right?  It's kind of like me giving him an issue of, well... Vogue Knitting.  I tried to interestedly  flip through my new jeep magazine in an effort to be a good significant other, and guess what fell out!?!  A receipt for a set of Darn Pretty interchangeables from Dyakcraft!  <<insert joyful jumping up and down here>>  He's pretty good at being sneaky some times. These needles are beyond lovely and handmade in the US, which is a rare find these days. They were at the tippity top of my Christmas wish list, and I'm so so excited to have them -- in 12-14 weeks. Ah well, I know they'll be worth the wait.

Anyone else have a knitterly Christmas?  I'd love to hear.  Meanwhile, I'll be spending the rest of this week getting Mr. Right ready to travel.  We found out today that he'll be leaving in the next week or so for a 6 month (!) assignment, part in California and part in Alaska.  More details to come as we figure stuff out, and I'll pop in to visit the rest of the WIPW posts when I can.

In the mean time, Happy New Year, guys!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.72

Hey, WIPW peeps!   Welcome to Christmas crunch time.  Anyone else feeling the strain just a bit?  I have just a couple more presents to pick up for Mr. Right, and then some wrapping to do, and then I can collapse.  I'm sooooo ready for that last part, since it means I can actually get to knitting again.

This week, I have sleeve.  It's within just a couple of rounds of being transferred to waste yarn so that I can knit its mate. 

I have to say, knitting a sleeve on incredibly dull bamboo dpns is less fun than I'd like.  In fact, I contemplated a one-armed sweater for just a quick minute before I decided it was more pathetic than trendy.  Sigh.  I'm so looking forward to getting back to the actual business of sweater-ing and the sleeves just seem like a dumb side trip.  Somehow I think I'll appreciate them a bunch more when I'm actually wearing the sweater, but we'll see.

I also have part of a puff.  It won't take long to finish, but I've discovered that all sock yarn is not created equal, and puffs made from Noro are pretty, and HUGE. 

(Random thought:  Isn't it weird how different the same countertop looks in sequential no-flash shots?)

I'd put this puff at about 30% bigger than its companions, but I guess it's not a huge deal since they're all quilt-tied together in the end which will allow for some size variation, right???  Here's hoping.

For now, I'm going to crawl into bed (it's bedtime on Tuesday night here), then crawl through the last couple of work days before vacation.  Somewhere in there, I'm going to go visit all the other WIPW entries for a little Christmas cheer (and Hanukkah happiness and umm... Festivus festivity?).

So until the aftermath, and next week's glut of New Year's resolutions...

Merry Christmas!*


*if you celebrate something else this time of year, I wish you all good cheer in that, too.  I'm just a Christmas girl, and get a little defensive about no one uttering the phrase "Merry Christmas" for fear of offending folks.  So, no offense intended -- just tons of seasonal happiness for all of you!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.71

Happy Wednesday, folks!  It's official, even I'm starting to feel a tiny bit panicky about Christmas.  I'm usually way ahead of the game with this type of thing, but all that craziness last summer threw me off my game a little bit.  (Quick update:  Mr. Right and I are doing well now, still working on things but definitely heading in the right direction.  Yay!)  Anyway, I still have some Christmas prep to do, and I'm betting I'm not alone.  Anyone else?

In other, less urgent news...  Lorna Suzanne is still sailing along at a pretty good clip.  The body doesn't look much different than last week, but it's a couple of inches taller and officially on hold at the armpits, patiently waiting for its sleeves.

I had a bit of a scare on sleeve one, wherein I looked at the cuff I'd just finished and declared it to be ginormous.  Seriously, this thing looked huge.

I contemplated frogging, but instead put it aside and frogged the Peerie mitten ribbing to get rid of the stupid mistake I made right at the beginning.  Why are the really dumb mistakes always right at the beginning?  Anyway.  Ta da!  It's a mitten lining once more.

I'll put some elbow grease into it this weekend and see if I can get it back on track.

Once I took a few deep breaths and picked up the Massive Sleeve Cuff again, I realized that this pattern calls for 3/4 length sleeves, and as it happens... my forearms are somewhat larger than my wrists, and the Massive Sleeve Cuff is really just kinda normal-sized.  Awesome.  I love it when that happens.  Now I'm back to soldiering away on sleeve #1, and longing for 2 finished sleeves so I can join everything onto my circ and get back to some nice long rows. 


Oh!  And the Idlewood yarn arrived this week, much faster than expected.

So you see, I really need to get this sweater done so I can start on that one.  Isn't it pretty?  I kind of love it (It's Cascade 220 in the Cordovan colorway).

Finally, I've been rather hopelessly obsessed with the Pinterest world the last few days.  It's such a time suck, and there's so much cool stuff.  Anyone use this site?  Thoughts?  Got a spare invite?  Because at the moment, I'm on the waiting list.  And I'm not the most patient person ever.  I'm super curious to know what your experience has been if you'd care to share.

ETA:  Thanks, Nikki for the Pinterest invite!  I'm all set now, but if anyone else would like one, let me know.  I'm suddenly in a position to send them.  Yay!

If I can tear myself away from that, I'll be making the rounds, checking out everyone else's WIPW entries.  Join me?

Work in Progress Wednesday v.70

Greetings from the frozen land!  It got just north of 20 degrees farenheit here today (that's -7 celsius) and it felt like picnic weather.  Yesterday, it didn't get much past 3, which is really freaking cold regardless of the scale you use.  I had to knit just to keep warm.  Sacrifices...

Last week, Lorna Suzanne was just a tiny little seed of a sweater, and it looked like this:

Today, I'm about 2" from stopping at the armpits and knitting up the sleeves.  I LOVE this pattern.  I do not LOVE making these cute little berries in the lace.  They're kind of fiddly.  But I can totally live with it if the sweater turns out half as well as it's looking at the moment.

Gauge is still running a tiny bit bigger than the pattern, so I remain ever hopeful that it will fit like a glove when it's all finished.  Everyone cross your fingers, please!

Since lightning fast (at least for me) sweater production didn't seem like enough to keep me busy, I went yarn shopping.  What?  It was 20% off Saturday.  I had no choice.  I bought this:

It's Kia Ora Rimu fingering by Zealana.  Quite a mouthful.  I found it on clearance at my LYS, and had passed it up a few times already.  But it's 60% New Zealand Merino and 40% possum (!) and soooooooo soft.  It's kind of ridiculous.  Know what's ridiculous-er?  I bought it to make a baby dress.  For a baby.  Crazy, yes?  I couldn't help it, it's exactly the right shade (It's a heathery dark denim color.  Honest.) for what I wanted and did I mention soft?  So soft.  It's going to grow up to be Fiona's Top, a ridiculously -- sensing a theme here? -- expensive pattern that I justified by convincing myself I'll knit it for every girl baby who comes along.  It's that cute. 

I also ordered, because 20%!  Off! -- 5 skeins of Cascade 220 in Cordovan to knit an Idlewood.  It was totally an impulse buy, but I think it'll be pretty. 

And, over Thanksgiving, I ordered a set of Candy Skein minis for my Power Puff Quilt, which are totally amazing.  Look...

It's a whole rainbow of puff ingredients.  You get enough of each color to make 2 of each puff, but I'm planning on one solid puff of each color, then some stripey puffs and some rainbow puffs, and, and, and...

Also, they come with these eensy little candy beads!  I have no idea what I'll do with them but they are adorable.  Seriously. And you'll just have to believe me on this one, because every single picture turned out blurry.  Sorry!

Also, they came with (Suddenly, I'm doing a Ginsu knives commercial* here...) this sample of Candy Skein Delicious, which might be the softest thing I've ever touched. 

I'm going to have to find a pattern to justify ordering a pile of it after Christmas, because at the moment the queue is a bit backed up.  Luckily, Christmas vacation is just around the corner.

...which doesn't in any way mean that Christmas is just around the corner.   I'm sure you still have plenty of time.  No need to panic.  Yet.  In fact, you should treat yourself with a visit to WIP Wednesday to see what everyone else is up to.  Rushing around can start next week or so.  (Is it working?  Are you less stressed now?)

*I <3 the internet.  It's amazing what you can dig up!

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!