Eek! Almost Christmas!!

I was just re-reading my last post...I had almost forgotten about the snow!  This weekend it has been 70 degrees, because, you know, Christmas.  It's been a little peculiar to say the least (plus very difficult trying to get dressed. T-shirt? Jacket? Shorts? WHAT DO I DOOOOO? Haha.)

In knitting news, I had a whole post written out last week in my notebook, talking about my progress on the fingerless mitts,

Took me 8 hours to get this far, while watching Good Eats, Carl Sagan's Cosmos (which I can no longer find), and Doctor Who's Spearhead from Space.  Imagine what would happen if I just worked without distraction???

The gifts I needed to finish,

Bike Helmet Ear Warmers for the BF

Christmas tree pin for a friend

And some other random things, but look!  They're all done now (and I totally forgot to post it. whomp whomp)!  The bike helmet ear warmers were very well received, but we discussed adding a button to each to actually keep them in the correct location.  They're a little dorky, but no dorkier than wearing a hat underneath your helmet (and way more comfy!).  The Christmas tree pin will be given tomorrow, I think she'll totally dig it, but I'll let you know how it goes!  I also made some cute tags/business cards for each gift, using the sheep photo from Iceland.  It needs a little work, but a good start!  I can't wait to make more!  :-) 

The fingerless mitts are still just "mitt", and remember that Simplicity Cowl?  Yea, still haven't seamed that up.  At least I wove in the ends where I broke the yarn and had to do some joining.  But not yet seamed.  I didn't know about the provisional cast-on when I started, so that cowl will definitely not be as cool as it should be.  Almost totally awesome, but not quite.

Alright, 2 more nights til I fly home, need to make my fingers fly through the yarn!  Happy knitting!  Have a great Christmas!

PS - haha, I was reading my posts from the beginning.  I made absolutely NOTHING on my original Christmas gift list!  They say if you post your goals, or at least announce them to others, you're more likely to stick to them.... bwahahahahaha.  Not true.  All lies.  Hahaha.  But everyone gets something anyway.  Except for my mom.  She gets a ball of yarn and a pattern.  The she can tell me, "no, I don't like that, make me this instead".  I feel that's a much more appropriate use of my knitting time (plus it's been very difficult thinking of something she'd really like.)  Ok, off i go!

Update!

Hey hey!

Looks my schedule is more like two weeks per post, but at least I'm still on it!  AND - I have quite a few updates!  YAY, go me!

First - it's quite the winter wonderland outside.  Check out the view from my window:

Not quite Snowmaggedon, but it's pretty!

I don't think we've had real snow in a few years, so it's pretty nice.  Although, I'm so wary about Metro that I'm not going climbing today, since they might shut down for no reason!  Oh well.  It's nice and warm in my apartment, so I'm cozy enough to do this:

Boneyard Shawl in KnitPicks Imagination Loch Ness

Look at the pretty colors!

I didn't think I'd be making a Boneyard Shawl with this yarn, but I wanted something relatively easy to work on, plus it's cold in my office so I need something to warm me up!  It's knitting up pretty fast which is nice, and it's mindless knitting so I've been watching some random TV and documentaries as I knit.

I also started on this bib for my bf's niece.  I started it in the car on the way to Thanksgiving, and realized I had cast on WAY too many stitches.  It's big enough to be a bib for me!  It's a picot cast-on with a traveling stitch made with a left twist.

It's sort of on hold right now, as I try to finish this before Christmas:

As you can see, I am oh-so-far on the Mitt Envy fingerless gloves I've started.  I hoping they don't take toooo long, or at least I can get one done before Christmas.  If not, hey, I'll have a pair of fingerless gloves...in July.  haha.  This is yarn from Catskill Merino Sheep Farms.  I went to New York for Thanksgiving and stopped in their tent at Union Square and couldn't resist!  It's variegated black/grey, but still so beautiful.  And super soft!!  

I'm really bad at getting the right color in photos

Look at the pretty!!!!

That's all I've got for today.  Happy Knitting!

J

My, it has been a while

Sorry for the long span between posts, been a little busy with job things, then there was some camping,

The right honorable Earl Harold Higgenbottom the Tenth, Esquire.
Tuckahoe, MD

and then general laziness/ i'm going to play on the internet instead of write in a blog.  Whoops.

Also, seeing as how I haven't done much knitting, it's a little silly to post in a knitting blog.  I did make one thing, the "Mile-a-Minute" scarf, turned it into a cowl, and it took very little time.  Now that it's super freezing outside, I might use it (although it's pretty open, so may only be helpful a few minutes at a time).

Other than that, I've been a little lazy with the knitting, altho I have tons of ideas in my head and want to make ALL THE THINGS!!!  the problem is starting on anything.  oof.

Alright, this is a pretty sad update, but it's all I have for now.  I'll try to finish something over thanksgiving....

Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah....

Batman!

:)

That's all I have this week, no knitting updates, too many awesome Halloween adventures! 

-J

Ah, sorry sorry!

Hey! Look, two weeks passed just like that...whooops.....alright, here's the quick download (of everything I've thought the past two weeks apparently)
1) Simplicity Cowl almost complete!  Length is finished and blocked, now I need to seam it together!  FINALLY.

It's pinned where the seam would be.

2) Here's my new yarn from KnitPicks in all its yummy glory!

Dishie Multi in Wave - I've already made a few coasters for the bf's apartment.  Also so I wouldn't have to watch Event Horizon with no distractions.  I need distractions during scary movies.  Good, but confusing.  It's on Netflix.  

Imagination sock yarn, Enchanted Lake.  I thought it would be a little more graceful, but it feels more childish than I care for.  It's in my "will trade or sell" pile on Ravelry, unless I find something to use it for.

Imagination sock yarn, Loch Ness.  I like these colors, mostly because I love the woods and the water.   Not nearly as saturated as I thought it would be though.  Quite lovely, might make a simple shawl from it.

Full Circle Wool, colors Latte and Mocha.  I'll probably make a scarf with these.  Also, not as saturated as I anticipated.  We'll see how they swatch up.  

3) I've been flipping though Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting Patterns.  And by "flipping through, " I mean looking at every pattern and putting a sticky note next to it so that I can use it somewhere.  hah.  It's an amazing book, apparently there are three of them??
4) I'm in cast-on purgatory.  I have Christmas presents to make, but I can't figure out which pattern I want, or which yarn to use, or even what kind of item I want to make (is it a cowl, a hat, an owl mug cozy?).  I really want to do something fast, but my indecision is telling me that is a lie.  Is this what they call "start-itis"?
5) My birthday's coming up, yay!  I'll be 30.  With no idea what I want to do with my life.  It's awesome.  In a really not awesome sort of way. boo.
6) Climbing buddy and I bouldered a V2 without completely tiring ourselves out, woo!  Only took maybe 4-6 tries, I can't really remember.  Who'd a'thunk it?  We're getting better!
7) Hallowe'en is this week!  I'm gonna be Batman!  And I'm climbing!  My harness will be my bat utility belt.  It'll be amazing, woo woo!
8) Christmas show at the USBG is coming up!  OMG.  It's already almost Christmas?!?!?!!
9) I watched a movie with Leslie Nielsen that wasn't a comedy.  I give you, Forbidden Planet.  Pay no attention the cover, it has characters from the movie, but no actual scene like that occurs.  I'm not sure if I would recommend this movie other than it's from the 50s and it's got some cute antiquated gender roles and thoughts on the future.  Also, we have a lot of catching up to do in our colonization of the rest of the solar system.  We're supposed have completely colonized the moon by 2015, if I remember correctly.

::takes a deep breath::

Alright, I've gotten some of the thoughts out of my head.

Have a good nite and great week!

A slow week

This week was pretty slow with the knitting, but I did three fun things:
1) Undid the bind-off on the Simplicity Cowl.  It was actually easy.  I used this tutorial .  She made it really easy to understand, and even though I had a 'suspended' bind off, I still managed to understand I only interacted with the same stitches she was.  I was very proud of myself, but no pictures, sorry.  Maybe I'll do a tutorial just for that, but how do I get the camera to only look at my hands?  Do I need a tripod?
2) I bought new yarn.  And LOTS of it!  Lots for me, at least!  I knew I was getting ready to cast-on for another project, so I went to my LYS, Looped Yarn Works, and pet every yarn in sight!  Haha.  I forget how expensive yarn can be, and my naturally frugal (miserly? nah, I don't think I'm that bad, I have some shiny things) nature won over, so I bought Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine in the Cobalt Mix colorway.  Still not the cheapest, but isn't it so pretty?

And then, on Friday, this popped up on my Facebook:

haha!  Frugality FTW!

ooooo, KnitPicks clearance??  I must investigate!  And investigate I did.  I ended up with several skeins of their Imagination hand-painted (socks for me and mom), two skeins of wool of the andes for the bf's scarf, and a couple of Bare skeins to try out some food color/kool-aid dyeing!  I'm so excited to get them!  I'll post more about them with photos when I receive!

I have never bought so much yarn, and it cost so little with the Knit Picks sale!  I'm really excited to try new patterns and techniques, plus using new yarns and needles (I still haven't used my circulars)!  Yay!

3) I was out in Pittsburgh this weekend for my bf's friend's wedding.  It was so much fun, and the food was super delicious - the bride's dad is a chef!  Omnomnomnom.  Not to mention, site-seeing in Pittsburgh involves seeing this:

It looks like Mr Rodgers trolley!

and this:

   

 

Rubber duckie, you're the one...

...plotting to take over the world! Muahahahaha! ::ahem:: 'scuse me.

All-in-all, a super fantastic weekend!  Unfortunately, it left very little time for knitting, and my cowl is still not finished.  Time to get cracking, have a great week!

I thought I was done!!

Hey folks!  Look, a pretty blocking photo:

Look at that tape job to make right angles!  Fantastic!

And now a cool blocking photo:

The Star Wars theme should be in your head right now

Alas, too bad it wasn't to be.  I blocked the Simplicity cowl, then realized it was WAAAYYYY too short.  WAY.  Couldn't even make it around my head twice.  Granted, I do have a big head, but still, it was ridiculous.  So now I have to learn how to un-bind a suspended bind-off and splice some yarn to make the cowl longer.  I somehow never learned that adage "measure twice, cut once" even going through architecture school and building tiny models.  Nope, too impatient.  sigh.  oh well.  Another learning experience I suppose.  I'll try and post some photos of my un-binding effort, if I don't get super frustrated.

In other projects....well, I don't have any.  I really need to start another one, I was actually getting pretty antsy this weekend with nothing on the needles.  I know I have three projects coming up: a winter headband for the boyfriend (really need that since hopefully the weather will cool down soon), socks for mom, and cowl for other sister.  I actually have yarn for two of the three, but not the correct needles.  and I haven't even really found a pattern for any of them.  The headband may just be a ribbing, maybe cabling.  We'll see.

Speaking of the weather...it was almost 90 degrees today.  it's October.  In DC.  It's a little hot for this time of year.  Now, I wouldn't really mind, but we went apple- and veggie-picking today, and it was just waaaay too hot to be picking fruits and veggies!  I mean, they're delicious (like woah) and all, but I have a sun headache now!  terrible.  Hopefully the weather calms down and starts behaving like fall, because I am just really confused all the time now.  I can't tell what day or month it is anymore!  

Here's a llama for your viewing pleasure.  He was at the farm today.

I was a little wary.  He had been sitting down until I got there.  I thought he'd spit on me.

Have a great week!