Some progress

Here I am, late again. *whistles innocently* I have absolutely no excuse for not updating last week, as I took the week off to relax a bit. Unfortunately, it took me until Friday to start relaxing. I seem to suffer from a terminal need to constantly be doing things.

Thankfully, knitting fulfills that sometimes! I'm back to working on one project at a time (though I really do miss having a sock in my purse). I figured I'd get more done this way, only having one thing to concentrate on, and not wasting time deciding what to knit. And so there has been much progress on le shawl!



I'm currently on round 75, putting me about halfway through. Tonight, I'll attempt to get even more done whilst watching two hours of House with a friend. As one of my AIM away messages used to say, House + knitting = OTP, once you get the hang of it.

Here's hoping that House + lace doesn't turn out to = disaster. It didn't a couple weeks ago, but you never know...

Mood: tiredish
Music: Oingo Boingo - No One Lives Forever

Another late update (are we seeing a pattern here?)

I didn't realize how busy I was this week until I looked back and realized that today is the only day that I haven't gone out of the house. Of course, I took my knitting with me most of the time, but I still haven't made much progress.

This past week and a half has been more about ripping stuff out than it has making progess. The lovely "crazy sock" turned out to have suffered from a severe case of me trying to do knitting math with the TV on, and had to be ripped out. I haven't cast it back on yet, but I'm hoping to soon. I'm starting to go a little nuts with nothing to do while waiting for the sub sandwiches post-shopping on Thursdays.

I realized that I had to approach the bag differently because I'm not working from a pattern and don't want to run out of yarn before I'm finished. So I unravelled that, too, and started it again from the bottom instead of the top.



In more uplifting knitting news...THE BLANKET IS DONE!



This was it, the very last end! I was so excited that I stopped and took a picture.





And there it is! It's now on its way to the local chapter of Project Linus, where I hope it will warm and comfort a child for a long time.

My latest undertaking, which has already caused me much grief, is this:



It's KnitPicks' Rona Lace Shawl, and the picture on the pattern is absolutely beautiful. But, as this is my first shot at lace, I keep screwing up and have had to rip it out at least six times already. The furthest I got was round 35, at which point I realized that trying to knit during acoustic music open mics and shows is probably not the best idea, and had to rip out yet again. The picture above is of my most recent attempt, and I'm on round 27 right now. Here's hoping I don't screw up any more!

The wonderful Stephanie loaned me the 16" circular I'm currently using, which is a heck of a lot better than trying to squeeze over 16" of pattern onto dpns and having to watch and make sure stitches don't drop off the ends while also trying not to mess up the pattern. Hopefully this will contribute to a lack of messing up on future rounds.

Onward and upward to a scorching weekend (forecast is 92°F for Sunday! whew!) of working and knitting in the AC'ed upstairs!

Mood: want coffee

A Week Late

Gasp! Last week's holiday weekend totally messed up my schedule, and thusly, I missed last week's update. But I'm back now, with pictures!



Progress on le blanket! It's been off the needles for a couple of weeks now, but the prospect of weaving in all the ends has been an overwhelming one. I've only been doing it at Stitch 'n' Bitch, and last night I got help from a friend, so there's a lot less left to do than there otherwise might be. It should be done next week!



The "crazy sock". I'm making this pair from the yarn that's leftover from the other crazy socks. I tried out a heel technique from Sensational Knitted Socks that makes lovely concentric circles without a lot of effort. It involved my first-ever attempt at a provisional cast-on, and I think it went pretty well. I may never knit heels any other way again!



This will, eventually, be a striped, felted bag. I'm using the Lamb's Pride I got at the yarn sale. I love knitting with this stuff! I test-felted a swatch, and, as I've been told, it felts great. I'm looking forward to having the knitting time to make some real progress on this.

And last, but not least,



more acrylic stash I don't need! I got it from a friend last night at Stitch 'n' Bitch...I couldn't resist free yarn.

I also finished knitting the cotton bag for my mom, but I have no pictures of it yet. I think I'll take some once I've lined it and put the handles on, so I'll have a picture of the finished piece. The colors all go well together, and I'm going to line it in black so they stand out.

Eek, this was kind of a boring, routine update. I'll try to be more exciting next week!

Mood: caffeinated