another day of completion and then some

Okay as promised, here is a pic of the completed Irish Hiking wrist warmer. I was hoping to be done with the other one today but I decided to shower instead. I'm sure by the end of the evening I'll be able to say that I have a pair of them. It's a bit snug around the wrist but my fiance says if I keep wearing it, it'll loosen up. I hope so. My sister thought it was weird looking and didn't understand the purpose of making wrist warmers. She told me she can't do anything when she wears gloves because her fingers can't move. I explained to her that's why these freakin' things are fingerless. To which she mumbled with, 'You should make me some too.' Great. I'll have to have her pick out the color of yarn and maybe purchase it since the funds are low in my bank! If I spent the time I should've been sleeping thinking about patterns, yarn, and blogs is something wrong with me? Have I gone over the deep end? I just could not get to sleep. I thought about new projects I'd like to begin..the yarn that I'm going to need, reading blogs, writing blogs, etc. I wish I could get paid to do all this. Wouldn't that be nice? If we could all be paid to just knit and blog? I also thought about my future in terms of my career. Now, I am a teacher by nature. Remember a few blogs ago when I posted about what a small world it was and how I knew Mrs. Yarn Boy? Well yarn boy provided me with her email address (which was the same one she had when we were still in school together but I thought she had stopped using it) so I emailed her. I finally heard back from her and guess what. She isn't teaching either. So amidst all my pondering over patterns, yarn, and blogs, I also thought how many others in our small little cohort aren't teaching. I started to wonder what the average amount of years was that we all taught. I started to think what if I was the only one that stayed in teaching. Then I started to think that maybe something was wrong with me for sticking with a profession that others who had gone through the same program as I had at the same time had given up. I wondered, how did they make the jump from teaching into something else. That's my fork in the road. I don't know how to make that jump. I haven't emailed her back yet but I'm going to pick her brain about how she did it. Well, I finally finished this blasted thing, the IHS! I didn't think I ever would. 2 months and about 4 skeins of rowan cashsoft dk later, it is complete. It is about 4" x 65" (not including the tassels I added). I wish it was wider but what can you do. So all I have left on my knitting plate is besotted and my other IH wrist warmer which I'll finish in no time. I'm going to start working on some hats for my friend who will be moving to Nevada City. She gave me some yarn around when I first learned to knit from a kit she had from Michael's. I hadn't figured out what I wanted to make for her and now I know. I've got 2 skeins of a baby pink and 2 of a light blue both acrylic/nylon combo plus 1 skein of an ivory wool/acrylic combo. I had intended on making her a scarf before I knew how to make hats. Now that I know how to cable and have a new love for fingerless gloves/wrist warmers, I might make her a pair of those too. To my only subscriber and commenter, AR, what kind of sweater shall we make? ;)

a new kal!

Let's try this again. I think when I want to blog I'm going to just use firefox from now on because ie and blogger are screwy together! Anyway, I just joined a new kal today. :) There's an Ivy kal! I was so excited to find it! I fell in love the minute I saw Ivy in the new knitty but I knew that currently, I don't have the $$ to buy new yarn particularly 11+ skeins! Maybe it will give me the motivation to work harder @ finding a job. It isn't helping that I want to find 'that' job. You know, the one where you're actually happy to be at and you don't have any issues with anyone or over anything. Why I decided now is when I want that job, I can't really say. I just do. I guess because it's getting to be time to settle down and I don't want to stay @ a job for x amount of years and find myself overworked, underappreciated, and unhappy again. Back to the yarn. I went to the elann site just to look @ yarn but I couldn't do it. I know if I start looking now, I'll want to buy some now and I'll get depressed and I might just apply for any old job and just take said any old job and regret it later. The Ivy designer is actually a part of the kal which I think is super cool. On her blog, she posted various substitutes for Ivy. I'm going to take a better look @ that a little later and decide if I want something for a warmer climate or a colder one. Did I mention yet that I'm kind of in a transition in knitting (not just in my career path!) and I'm dying to try out a sweater now. This was the summer of dishcloths and cables. How's about a good old fashioned sweater? It's funny because I had been looking for a nice wrap sweater and lo' and behold, here came Ivy. :) It was meant to be. Ivy will be the first of many (I hope!). In other knitting news, I completed one of my IHS wrist warmers yesterday in the car. I casted on and started the first row for the second one but that's as far as I got because it was already dark. I don't have a picture yet of the finished wrist warmer because I haven't done the seam yet. Hopefully I'll post that later today. :)

what I've been up to

So I attempted the ninepatch dishrag because I thought I was ahead of the game and knew what the next dishcloth was going to be for the dishcloth kal when the hint given was something about using scrap yarns! I finished it in one night. I obviously didn't have a grand time with the miter squares. I don't know why. The bottom left one is knitted the way the MD gals said to do it but I didn't like it. So I tried to modify it three times in three different ways and none of them ended up being one that worked out well. I gave it to my fiance because he selected the pattern of colors for me. He liked the stripes right in the middle. I preferred them going diagonal. Whatcha gonna do? So I gave it to him. I asked him what was he going to use it for and he said he'd tell me once I finished it. I finished it and he still couldn't tell me. I told him he should use it as a coaster because he always puts his cups on the carpet and sometimes the cups are sweaty so the carpet gets damp. So he's going to use it as a coaster. This next one I tried to start and finish yesterday. That didn't happen. We had to take a friend to the airport so I wasn't home to knit. I didn't bring it with me because I like knitting with either daylight or lights. I don't like knitting with the car light on! I was incorrect in guessing what this installment of the dishcloth kal was going to be. It wasn't the ninepatch. It was a log cabin. I only really have 2 dishcloth yarn leftovers which have been for the garterlac and the swish with a twist I did. So I used those two and incorporated bernat sox that i had leftover. It's not perfect but it's done. As I worked on it yesterday, I sat on my bed looking at my other dishcloths and thought maybe I'll weave them altogether and make a mishmosh blanket. I guess we'll see. Also in my absence, I have started a pair of IHS wrist warmers to go with my IHS that I'm going to finish, eventually!

talk about small world

I was looking @ the patterns in the latest issue of knitty (again) when I stumbled upon something. In particular, I was looking @ the avast pattern. I like it but the last time I followed one of yarn boys patterns I wanted to rip someone in half. So I'm only allowing myself to admire it from afar. Anyway, I was glancing underneath the main photo and underneath it, I recognized a name! I went to grad school with her. I spent 2 years of my life in classes with this person who I befriended once upon a time. We graduated and went separate ways. She remained in the bay area while I took a year off and last I heard she was still in the bay area teaching @ Jewish Day School. Little did I know she had gone off and married yarn boy. I tried to email her after I saw her name credited for the photo but the email address I have is old so I was perusing Jesse's blog and decided to just email him about it all. I asked him to fwd the email to her so we'll see what happens. Must be nice to have a husband that knits stuff for you. :)

socks finally done!

Yay! I actually didn't think I'd ever finish them. I started the first sock (on the left) back in June and zipped through it because I wanted to see the pattern that would develop! In so doing, I caused way too much pain to my right hand and after I started the 2nd sock in the pair, I decided to take time off from knitting socks. I have since come to learn how to resolve my pain and I can honestly say that I don't even really have that same pain anymore. It was horrible! My pointer finger and my middle finger would honestly numb up around the knuckles. I'd go to sleep with them numb and even wake up with them numb. :O Now I don't have any numbness! It hurts a lil bit around my knuckle on my pointer finger but that's all that's left of the pain. I wish the socks actually matched! That would have been nice. Oh well. I noticed something weird too. First off, the second sock I started with a new ball of yarn because I wanted the patterning to be identical. As I was grafting the toe last night, I noticed that the second sock felt a lot thicker than the first sock. I don't know what it is because they're exactly the same yarn just 2 different skeins. They're too thick for me to wear in public so they'll be house socks. In other knitting news, I decided to frog the triangular shawl. Where in the world am I going to wear that thing? I have yet to frog it but I know I will soon. Once I do that, I'll be left with just 2 projects in my project bag. I'm in this mode where I just want to finish everything that I've had for way too long. So next up is the IHS. I'm waiting on the rest of my yarn to show up and then I can finish it. The shipment should arrive on Wednesday. Back to the triangular shawl though. What the heck am I going to make with that tlc cara mia yarn now? I was so glad that I had finally found a project for them (the shawl) and now I don't want to make the shawl anymore. Any suggestions? I hope so! :)

What I was doing last night instead of blogging

I figured out the swish with a twist pattern. Ya know, actually sitting down and reading a pattern from beginning to end is really helpful! I thought I was only having a hard time with the pattern because I wasn't paying enough attention and I kept losing my place. Oh no..it helped a whole lot when I realized that I needed to completely slip the stitch off the needle and 'drop the second wrap' rather than knit into the damn thing. I was a genius last night! And since I was so smart, I made myself finish the dishcloth because I wanted to blog about it, last night. Ohhh, but my hand and fingers hurt on my right hand and I just couldn't get a decent picture. I couldn't post this morning because my landlord things school started today so I had to pretend to go to work today. Yes, you read correctly. Instead of getting to spend my entire day doing knitting-related things (blogging, keeping up with kal's, reading the forums on kr, or just plain knitting!), I had to be out of the house. I did do a little knitting though. I worked a teeny bit on my IHS. Aside from the swish with a twist dishcloth, I did other knitterly things yesterday. I had to find some rowan cashsoft dk 506 (crush) because I wouldn't have enough to finish my IHS. I thought I'd have enough but then I actually sat there and thought about it for a minute and guess what hit me? I don't wear scarves that are only 55 inches in length. So we went to Burbank to go to the shop I picked up my rowan cashsoft in the first place and you know what? They didn't have any. She showed me the book, but I didn't see it. She said I could probably find it online. I thought..yeah, you're probably right and I didn't think anything else of it-until I got home that is! But before heading back home, we went to Michael's because I wanted to see what they had @ the one in Burbank. I picked up another skein of Paton's Classic Merino Wool in Wedgewood because again, I don't make scarves that are only 55 inches long! The besotted scarf is in this wedgewood. I really like the pattern but the colors in the yarn prevent the rest of the human race from seeing the cute lil x's and o's adorning the thing! SO, I'm going to make myself one. Oh yes, I forgot to mention all the shopping I did while I was 'on vacation.' We (my sister, myself, and my fiance) went back home (Salinas, CA) for the baby shower. I had my sister take me to Beverly Fabrics-my favorite lys in Salinas and I picked up a sugar n' cream. We also went to Wal-Mart. Typically, I am not a fan of Wal-Mart because the one in Salinas is utterly disgusting. I was pleased to find out that it is no longer disgusting. I picked up some peaches n' cream from there. I was hoping to find the Paton's there but I wasn't lucky. Okay, so yesterday, we get home from Burbank and I go online to start searching for my rowan cashsoft dk 506 (crush). I was trying to find it for less than what I paid for @ Unwind. I googled it and @ one of the sites, it said the color had been discontinued so I started to freak out a bit. I realized, beggars can't be choosers now! One site had only one skein and it was the lowest price I could find! I picked up 3 skeins @ yarnzilla. I also started looking for some yarn for my besotted scarf. The one I'm working on right now in the paton's classic merino in wedgewood is for my fiance. The color I wanted isn't in stores-I looked @ Michael's. I even looked on the Joann's site and nothing. So I had to go searching, again! I eventually found it for a really good price from yarnsupply.com. I got 4 skeins and hopefully that'll be enough. I can't wait for all my yarn to arrive! :)

I'm back!

But I will probably post something tomorrow. I am exhausted! It was a long car ride and yesterday was an unbelievably long day as well! I thought I'd be able to finish @ least one project I had going but unfortunately, that would be a no. Oh well. Till tomorrow!