finished!

I finished another UFO!

My qiviut scarf, the Chevron and Berry Scarf from Folkknits.

I made one just like this for my husband and started this one last year for myself. Got about 2/3rds done and just stopped. Always nice to get something finished.

And that means I can start something else! My sis & her husband gave me some camel hair yarn at Thanksgiving. I've been trying to think of something special to make with it. There's 150-200 yards of 2-ply handspun. Thinking about maybe doing the fingerless mitts - Fetching, or something like it. Or maybe a hat.

And for my birthday, my DH gave me FIVE skeins of Socks that Rock! That's light-weight Spinel in the picture (it's not that blue - more greeny/blue). I'm almost finished with the wild zebra socks, so can start on this soon, too.

I'm not forgetting about the other UFOs. I can only start a new project if I finish an old one. (we'll see how long this resolve lasts)

Pie Day!

Did you know it's National Pie Day? Neither did I 'til I visited pieknits.com this morning. She not only has her adorable knitted cherry pie and blueberry pie 'recipes' up, she's got a yummy apple pie recipe (the edible kind).

I haven't made a pie in years, but one of my favorite diet-friendly recipes is the Weight-Watchers Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie.

Now excuse me while I go seek out a less diet-friendly pie somewhere...
hummm, cherry sounds good.

Comfort bedjacket

Finished!

Here's the surgery -

'Before' shot - rather over-exposed

I picked up stitches just above the offending garter stitch border. (please note beautiful assistant, Scamp)

Then I carefully cut below the picked up row, trying to pull a bit of extra yarn at the beginning to give me something to start with.

Then I just unlaced; cutting the yarn when it got to be too long to comfortably pull.

After all that, I started knitting down, using a 1x1 rib and keeping the edges in pattern.

Much happier now!
Pattern: mine

Yarn: Berroco Comfort (superfine acrylic and nylon blend) in Wild Cherry

Needles: Various lengths of 5mm circulars (Addi Natura) and dpns

Some of the things I swiped (um, borrowed) from the Circumnavigated Cardigan:

1. The nifty garter stitch border with the 2 stitch I-cord edge is used on the CC pocket.

2. The false seam up the sides and on the underside of the sleeves. It eliminates that 'barrel' effect of sweaters knit in the round.

3. You knit the bottom border of the CC down from a provisional cast-on. That wasn't originally planned on this one but the general idea was achieved anyway.

4. Short-rows in the back to help the hang of the sweater

5. The short-row collar isn't from the CC, but has some elements from the shawl collar there.

The yarn:

Comfort is a well-named yarn. It's incredibly soft and cushy. It's also machine-washable and -dryable. A small downside - it's made out of lots of very small strands. Be prepared to occasionally go back and pick up the rest of the strand, 'cause you only caught a few the first time. You'll need smooth needles and smooth skin, too. It will catch on everything. Otherwise, a lovely soft yarn that has enough spring in it for easy knitting. And a picture of Bonnie, since Scamp connived her way into a picture.

Flashback

I've finished the Comfort bedjacket - except for that irritating flippy garter stitch bottom hem. I'm going to cut the darn thing off and knit a standard 1x1 ribbing instead.

But before I start that I've worked in all my ends. I tend to be a bit of a stickler about this - leaving nice long strands to work with and weaving in for quite a long way. There's a reason for this .....

.....cue fading background and flash back with nostalgic 70's music (is there such a thing?) ....

I can't remember exactly how old I was when I received this gift, probably late pre-teen or early teen. Mom and Dad gave me an afghan kit. Crocheted granny squares, with bright bits of color in the center of each one, kind of an ugh tan around that, and white borders. Acrylic yarn, of course. I loved it passionately.

I devoted hours and hours to crocheting those granny squares with their cunning bits of red, green, orange and blue. I carefully sewed them all together - placing the different colors so it would resemble a garden of flowers.

Then I wove in all those ends. I followed the directions to weave in about an inch of each end and cut it off.

All ends cut, I proudly lifted up the result of months of work to show my family.

And it fell apart.

(I've managed to block out most of the subsequent events, but I'm pretty sure I cried at that point.)

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You know, I've never done another granny square afghan. I've done lots of other afghans, but not a granny square. I'm probably scarred for life.

Lesson learned: finishing may be boring, but it is just as important as all the fun bits. And don't believe the directions if they don't make sense.

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I'll try to remember to take before and after pictures of my bedjacket surgery and the final results will be blogged about later.

And here's a picture of sock progress.... Do not adjust your set - it really looks like that. Pretty wild, eh? I don't have the ball band with me and can't remember the name of this stuff. It was part of a gift from Rebekah for donating to Sugar Ray, the rescued boxer.

I managed to finish most of the leg on New Year's eve while sitting at the emergency room and doctor's office. Thank goodness for simple knitting!

2008 - New Year's resolution(s)

Usually a waste of time for me, but I'd like to try a bit this year.

1. Before I start a new project, I must finish an old project.
2. Same as #1

Only caveat - socks don't count, unless they're fancy socks. Plain old basic socks can be started at any time. They're my standard traveling project.

Some unfinished projects....

1. Comfort bedjacket - I am currently on the second sleeve
2. The qiviut scarf - 3/4s done, I messed up and am going to have to rip back a few repeats to fix it.
3. The shetland shawl - sigh...big chart and little yarn
4. The fisherman's gansey - sigh again... size us2 needles and skinny yarn

The first two are very do-able. We'll have to see about those other two. They probably represent 1/2 year work all by themselves.

Wish me luck.

Well, that was interesting.

I know. I said I wasn't going to make any presents for Christmas this year.
I lied.
I finished thesefor Mother. There's not a finished picture because they're on her feet.

I also finished this

for Mom & Dad. It's got a name,'Family Project', since Mom, Dad and I all worked on it. Again - no finished picture since I forgot to take one before it got wrapped up. (Imagine yellow binding - it really stands out against the black border.)

Favorite projects for 2007?

I practically live in my Circumnavigated Cardigan - that's my definition a successful project.

My Bigfoot Shawl - so fun, so fast, so pretty, so comfy!

Projects for 2008?

Finishing stuff would be nice. I've got the bedjacket, the qiviut scarf, and the shetland shawl all waiting to be finished. We won't mention any other languishing projects that might be hiding in the room (otherwise known as my sewing/craft room).

Starting stuff would be nice, too. I've got two color-stranded projects that have been in the planning phase for over a year. One's a fairly traditional Fair Isle cardigan and one... isn't.

New Year's Eve was interesting this time. I ended up in the emergency room, though not from the traditional reasons (no wild parties for me, thanks). I was at work, looking at a program on my computer and told the person I was working with on the phone that there was something wrong with my monitor.

Turns out there was something wrong with my eye instead. I had a hemorrhage in the back of my left eye, near the center. Luckily, it was small. This is the same eye I had the vitreous detachment in a few years ago, so it's not a great surprise.

It all comes from being extremely near-sighted. My eyeballs are so long that they've gotten very thin and fragile in the back and one of them decided to spring a leak.

I'm lucky that it doesn't need any laser surgery at this point and I'm just waiting to see how well it clears. All straight lines are wavy when I look through that eye, which can be rather disorientating. Bummer. Nothing like trying to work when one eye sees straight lines and the other one sees wavy. Fortunately, I can knit without having to look!

Here's to 2008!