Category: Knitting

Knitting · nanowrimo

Onward

Jen2 Comments

UPDATE: The widgets are fixed, hurrah!

NaNoWriMo continues. The word count widgets are broken (as you can see in my sidebar there) but we all soldier on. Actually this year so far has been really fun for me. Not like last year which was pretty much like having teeth extracted every single day for about three weeks. Blech. No, this year has been a fun and wild ride! I’ve had one character get tazed and kidnapped by government agents, while another character got fired from his job at Starbucks, and last night, two of my characters boosted a car! My word count, as of this morning, stands at 16,833. It was the easiest and funnest 16,833 words I have ever written. Hopefully I haven’t jinxed myself by saying that out loud in public.

And, I’ve been knitting too! The other night, I wrote well past my daily quota by the time the kids were in bed, so rather than spending the rest of the evening writing, I watched TV with the hubs and knitted. Using my own handspun, my first handspun, I cast on Ganomy at 9 pm and by 1 am I was finished:

[ravelry]

How is your November going?

Knitting · life · nanowrimo

It’s November. That’s right, NOVEMBER!!

Jen4 Comments

Hey, it’s November already. Yes, yes it is. I know the last couple of weeks in October were kind of a blur, but you’ll just have to accept that time is slipping away and that the holiday season is fast approaching. The pumpkins-turned-Jack-o-lanterns are already withering away.

And now, here you are in November, with NaNoWriMo in full swing and only 53 days to finish all your Christmas knitting. Just what do you think you’re doing , casting on a project for yourself?

[ravelry]

Knitting

Speaking of Priorities

Jen4 Comments

I rested my arm for a good week and a half before I tentatively picked up my knitting again and found that I can knit for 10 or 15 minutes before I have to stop and apply ice to the sore spots. So with precious little knitting time and a plethora of projects to get through, why on earth would I cast on not one, but TWO new projects?!

Dear Readers, I just don’t know. *sigh*

Knitting · Zombies

I should have known better

Jen6 Comments

The other day, when I wondered aloud if I could finish sweater for myself in time for the New York Sheep & Wool festival, I got to thinking. The plan has always been to reknit the top-down yoke cardigan that I killed back at the end of April. The New York Sheep and Wool festival is the weekend of October 17th. If I cast on my sweater right away, I’d have exactly 21 days to finish it. That seemed reasonable, as long as I dedicated all my knitting time to this single project. So that’s what I did. I dug out the yarn and cast on the evening of September 27th and knitted up to the first set of increases for the yoke.

The following morning, I knitted up to the second set of increases before I realized that the garter band on the collar was just too W I D E. I ripped back to the middle of the garter stitch band and pushed forward.

At this point, I was in knit-as-fast-and-as-often-as-you-can mode. When I wasn’t trying to keep up with the housework, or minding the children, or running a quick errand to the store, I was knitting. I knitted as fast as I could get my hands to go, whenever I had a few minutes to sneak in a row or 2 or more, and by yesterday evening I’d gotten through 3 of the 4 sets of increases for the yoke.

Why was I surprised, then, when I sat down last night to push through the last 20 rows of the yoke only to find that my left arm was radiating a sort of warm and twitchy ache? That’s right, faithful Reader, my old nemesis, the Very Horrible tendonitis, has returned. Evidently, I had forgotten the mantra (from the last time I had a flare-up).

  • I do not need to hold the world record. I can knit at the speed which is comfortable for my body. I do not need to hold the world record. Om.

To which I add: I guess I really didn’t need a new sweater for Rhinebeck…

*sigh*

Knitting · life

TV Fall Season 2009: It doesn’t suck!

Jen4 Comments

Ah, Fall, my favorite time of year. With the cooler weather finally starting to set in, my fancy has turned to thoughts of big ol’ wooly hand knits and television has risen, a phoenix, from the ashes of endless summer reruns. The official Fall season of TV started last week, and you know what? It doesn’t suck this year!

I’m watching Community, the comedy about 13th grade (aka community college). I went to two(!) community colleges, so I find this show particularly funny.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Then there’s Modern Family, probably the funniest show since Friends and Will & Grace, about three families. You’ve got your traditional mom/dad/3 kids family, the older step-dad/much younger mom/1 kid family, and the gay guy couple with an adopted baby. Funny, funny stuff, and the best show I’ve seen on TV since Pushing Daisies’ first year. (Damn you ABC for canceling Pushing Daisies!!!!)

Vodpod videos no longer available.

In the drama category, I’ve been very excited about the very excellent Flash Forward, the show that asks how would you live your life if you knew what you’d be doing 6 months from now.

And lastly, another drama, Eastwick. To be honest, I wonder how long they can keep this show going. Remember how Desperate Housewives was really good for about 2 seasons and then it started going downhill? Well, we’ll see how they do with this one.

Even Heroes didn’t suck (for the first time in 2 years)!

Vodpod videos no longer available.

What shows on the teevee machine will keep you company while you knit your way into cooler weather?

Knitting

Yet another FO

Jen7 Comments

This time, my first stranded knitting project. I completed the 2nd mitten the other night and I am, again, left wondering what made me think this project was taking too long.

[ravelry]

Perhaps the braids? While they did take a while to work, the entire second mitten only took about 3 days worth of knitting once I’d set my mind to it.  Here’s what the inside looks like because I know some of you are into that kind of thing:

This pattern was a very entertaining knit, and I’ll definitely do it again. And what of stranded knitting? It is AWESOME! I can’t wait to do more, only right now I have to turn to Christmas knitting, so it’ll have to wait. Also, I wonder if I can knit a sweater in time for Rhinebeck…

Knitting

And There

Jen5 Comments

One mitten down:

One to go. Truth to tell, I’m a bit hesitant to cast on the second mitten–that bird was way more fiddly that I expected it to be. Although, why I should have expected it to be less fiddly, I have no idea. Perhaps it’s because I am way worse at embroidery than I thought I was?

Knitting

Getting them straight

Jen3 Comments

When I realized I did not have to push through knitting the boys sweaters for the fall, I un-hibernated the Bird In Hand Mittens I started back in February. I originally put them aside because I figured by the time I finished them it’d be too warm for mittens (boy was I wrong about that!), but I can’t, for the life of me, figure out what I thought was taking so long.

I knitted the entire hand in one evening and the thumb in the next. The thumb needed a do-over, and has since been frogged. Still it went a bit faster than I thought it would. I’ll finish this mitten up tonight and cast on its fraternal sibling before I go to bed. Why fraternal? Well, evidently, I’ve made a GLARING error in the second wrist chart and, to be honest, I really don’t care.

Knitting

Knitting Priorities

Jen3 Comments

I spent much of this afternoon cleaning up the boys’ room, taking an inventory of their fall clothes, deciding which to keep or to toss, trying to figure out what I’ll need to buy when the cooler weather sets in. I7 needs long pants, of course. And a coat. E3 needs a couple of things. Not surprising, really, but the really great thing I learned on my little excursion deep, deep, deep down into the darkest depths of the kids’ closet, is that neither one of my kids needs a sweater this year. In fact, they barely have enough room in their dresser for the sweaters they have. Which means the extremely boring project I shared with you the other day can go on vacation, a very long vacation, along with the other kid sweater project I have planned. Life is too short for projects you hate, dear knitters. Too short.

Knitting · Lace

It’s a start. Sort of.

Jen2 Comments

So, it turns out that designing lace is really really hard. Especially if you’ve never done anything like it before. I think I’ve gotten a fairly decent start, though. See the references I have gathered?

I think I’m ready to get out some graph paper and start sketching. Have you, reader, designed lace? What references have you used that you found particularly helpful?