Progress, of the Knitting Kind

So, I have been knitting a little. Just very little. I've been working a little along on my Sea Orchid sweater, and I've gotten to just past where it splits for the neck. but I keep screwing it up on the back half of the body, and having to go back repeatedly. Like I'm doing right now .. I have to frog four rows. But that's okay. it's not like I have to go back to the beginning or anything. I really do need to sit down and write out the pattern again, so I won't get lost.

I finished a baby bib and a burp cloth for the girl at best buy that's having a baby. I'm probably gonna make one more of each, and then probably a blanket. I might go ahead and start that, since I have some Caron Simply Sofy in baby colors that I'm dying to use up. And some Homespun too. Though those colors may be too girly, and I -think- she's having a boy.

I bought my yarn for the Goddess Knits Anniversary Mystery Shawl today .. but it's 2400 yards of laceweight, and it was taking too long to wind, so the girl I know that works there is gonna bring it to me on Thursday at knit-day. I also got some more cotton for the market bags that brandon has been knitting up like a fiend. Feind. No, Fiend.

That's about it. I'll try to get some pictures going soon.

Very Little Progress

There has been knitting going on around here. But there has been very very little. I've been bad and not keeping knitting in my office with me. But I'm hoping that once I move the dresser out of the office and get the bookcase into the office and I can get things actually put away, I might do better.

I've gotten to the body on the Sea Urchin sweater, and am about 10 rows or so away from splitting for the neck. Which will be exciting really. Just have to get there. And I'm a third or so of the way through the first baby burp cloth I'm making. Other than that .. not a lot to talk about. Nor has there been any more progress on my owl, though Jason and Brandon have finished theirs.

I haven't even started on the Wrath project yet, though I know I need to. I'll get there soon, I swear it.

Happy Solstice!

Oh wow. Ravelry, for the first time, isn't slow! My old PC took a while to load what has become one of my favorite knitting resources. And now that my new PC is here, and set up, and working, and the internet isn't being a huge pain in the ass, I was finally able to hit Ravelry without finding it a chore. And wow! I still had some major slow loading even after Casey and Jess got the new server, so I was a bit .. well .. concerned that the new server wasn't doing what it was supposed to. Lo and behold, it wasn't their server .. it was my POS 4-year-old computer!

There has been knitting, in between the waiting and the fussing and the transferring and the setting up and the copying. I worked some more on Sea Urchin, though I screwed up part of it and had to rip back several rows and work it again. This time though I got it right, so I can continue. I really should keep working on Envy the Owl, since the boys are working on finishing theirs. Jason, in fact, is almost completely finished with his. I had to start a cotton project to knit at our Wednesday night knitting group, because we stay outside on the patio since it's nice out, but it's just too hot to knit alpaca/silk on bamboo needles when it's still 90-degrees at 8pm. So I started a baby bib. Since a girl at work will be having a bany in a few months, I figured I should get started, hmm?

My laptop is becoming a repository for the Cast-On podcast, which is by far my favorite right now. Of course, I've only caught a snippet here and there of others. I probably should check them out again, since I do enjoy knitting to podcasts. I've gotten the first two series' downloaded so far. I've a ways to go, but then they'll be on the laptop, and I can even take them upstairs and hide away for a while.

WIP (Woot!) and Wrath!

If you don't read my regular blog, I have my laptop finally, after a bit of a wrathful afternoon.



This is my new baby. Her name is, for the moment, Blossom. I think it's going to stick, but I'm not yet sure. She's a beauty, and there wasn't a whole lot I needed to do to get her going. A few icons moved from desktop to Quick-start, some futzing around with the Google Desktop, Gadgets and such, and I had to set up Lo-Jack for Laptops, plus install AVG. I'm waiting till I get my PC to decide what I'm doing about most of it, since Blossom is really just my 'I don't want to be tethered to my office' computer.

While waiting for Blossom to arrive .. and before I realized I was going to have to go and get her myself, I worked on Sea Urchin a little.



I emailed Ilga with some questions, and she got back to me with answers, which made me feel a lot better about the pattern in general. She also said she was delighted to hear I was knitting this as my first real garment, as it's a little more advanced than others. I've decided to add half a repeat before going on to the body, which I'll be getting to tonight. I'm so excited! I've gone through one ball of yarn .. but I have plenty of it since it was purchased for a different pattern.

The Seven Deadly S(p)ins club is having another contest. This time it's to come up with what your dream Wrath project would be. The prize is the yarn to make said Wrath project, dyed by them. I'm gonna hafta try this one.


Oh. And Isis is watching you.

So Smart!

So, Jason got me this pattern, right? It's beautiful. Ilga Leja's Sea Urchin.

I swatched for it. Really swatched! Washed it, blocked it, everything! And I got gauge! So .. the now daunting process of knitting the thing is all I have left. And I was all ready to begin .. when I read the pattern. Increase every second row, fourth row and sixth row .. huh? What is this, German?

*sigh*

I was determined though, and after casting on and knitting up to the point where I needed to actually figure out the increases, I knew I couldn't just stop. So I took out a lovely little journal I found on my bookshelf, and began to write the pattern out. Once I got to those pesky increases, I wrote out every row. All 39 of them. And started trying to plot the increases. Including how many stitches they would leave me with.

Three revisions of said writing later .. thank goodness for pencils and erasers .. I'm pretty sure I've got it written out correctly. At least now my written out destructions mesh with the pattern and the errata to the pattern that I found. I end on the correct row, and with the correct number of rows knitted after the final increase. I'm trying to decide now if I want to make the sleeve just a little longer.

I feel so smart!

PS: If you're interested, I posted in my boring blog a very very long, photo-gluttonous post about my flowerbeds.

Not Exactly Knitting but ..

.. I'm getting a new computer! Two, actually! I posted about it in my boring blog.

I really need to get started on my Sea Urchin top. But yesterday was busy busy, what with errands and such. I'm hoping that I'll be able to cast on today, and at least get through one pattern repeat. I've yet to see how the increasing for this thing is going to be handled. For the sleeves, at least. I can kinda guess how they work it for the top front and back.

Jason has used the 'no more yarn' words. I think because he's the one that buys most of it for me, but he has seen how big The Stash is getting. Even something that used to be small, such as The Sock Stash, is growing. And we have even more yarn coming, probably today if it's not already in the mailbox.