Met the Deadline

I'm heading to the airport in a few hours... aside from not forgetting anything in my frantic packing the biggest thing on my mind was knitting. As you probably know I've been working on the sleeves of my sweater, well the next step is a bit more involved. I have to measure, mark spots, cast on and pick up and knit a bunch of stitches. Not really something I can afford to do on a plane or in an airport. So I had a personal goal: Finish the sleeves and cast on the body before leaving for the airport. Well this morning I finished the sleeves!

I am basically finished packing so I have 2 hours to cast on and get ready. Hopefully I'll make it. On the sleeves the most exciting thing is the technique I learned while reading my color book. When working with stripes especailly in the round, you get a noticable jog where the color starts and ends (see the left picture below) but if you knit one round in the new color, then slip the first stitch, this border gets blurred and much more seamless (see photo to the right).  I was a little skeptical that something so simple could really help, but there it is! There's some stuff you can do when weaving in the ends, but that's for another day. Not gonna try and get that all done before my flight. Now on to the body!

But Mommy it's cold outside!

As the snow falls softly out the window, every mother is bundling up their little ones. Trying to make sure they stay warm for whatever outting they are off too. Some are the lucky ones, who get adorable hand knit hats to wear. Not only do they stay warm but they are stylish too! Little B Pumpkin, how cute. There's also Little B trying to be a gangsta in his pimp pea hat. I'm tempted to get a cork board and put up all the baby photos I have of little ones with my knitted gifts in my cube. I'm not a mom, but it'll look like I am with that display!

Olympic Goodness

One of the many things that's great about the olympics is lots of sports to entertain me as I knit away. Sleeve 1 is complete, finished it this afternoon. Removed the crochet cast on and have started the second sleeve. What I find hard or at least time consuming about the first sleeve is the constant measuring (or in my case trying on). Every hour or so I need to get into a tank top and try on the sleeve. Today it got to a point where the length seemed questionable. Sometimes it seemed too big, others it seemed too small. So I pinned the other side and put both arms through, and determined that the length was well done. Binded off and moving on.

In other related news....I'm a yarn-a-holic. I saw a pattern today, couldn't resist. (I was doing so well too, knitting down the stash, not buying any more yarn) but this pattern caught my eye... I'm gonna make some blue bears. And there's nothing you can do to stop me!

Stripes

In between cleaning, watching the olympics (sadly I am not on a team for the Ravolympics, but I don't have enough time for it anyways), playing in the snow, and catching up on my sleep. I am almost finished with the first sleeve. The stripes are all finished and now I just have to finish knitting the red to the desired length. All in all I am pretty pleased with the stripes. The jog is showing and I found a way to stop that from happening in my color book, but alas it's too late for this sleeve. Maybe the next one or the body I will attempt the knitting "fix".

Trying it on With Lilu

Close-up of colored Stripes

Color time!

It has come time to choose colors! It's been a while since I have done color work that wasn't hard christmas stockings or self striping yarns. (Another reason why I chose this sweater) One thing I want is to go with warm colors, I have lots of blues and blacks in my wardrobe. So I selected a burgundy red for the main color (lowest color, lower right) Then for the stripes I've added a burnt copper color, a goldenrod color and a slighly creamy white. These will be the stripes on the sleves and main body. The question now is what order and what ratio. The fun begins!

Destressify

Things have been very busy and stressful for a little while now. It's effecting my sleep, my brain just can't relax. Of course this is one of the reasons that I started knitting in the first place, all those years ago. And today it's snowing, I'm cleaning up a bit here and there, waiting for the time to come for me to turn on the superbowl and eat nachos. Therefore I have selected a new project and have started knitting away. I'm calling it a Valentine's Sweater. Mainly because its red and I'm starting it a week before valenties day, but that's pretty much it. It's a pattern from knitty, Tubey to be precise. The main color will be a deep burgundy red, with gold, copper, and creme stripes (perhaps not as big as the pattern shows, but something nice).

The funny thing is that like most knitters I understand the importance of knitting a swatch (a test piece to make sure everything will be the right size in the end) but I never knit a swatch. Well this time I did...then got completely confused on the measurments for the pattern. I think I was measured incorrectly, but still nothing really makes a whole lot of sense. So I took an average and I'm going to try it on as I go to make sure everything fits well together. That's the goal anyway, never done that before. So here I sit, knitting away, watching movies, running dishes and a load of laundry. Happy Sunday everyone!