Mental health day

I took a mental health day from work today. My weekend is going to be so busy with working at our team's soccer tournament. Sat and Sunday will be spent working the tounament. Checking in teams, field patrol and restroom duty. So, today was my relaxation day. Although I didn't do much resting. I made the trek to the not so local yarn store. I wanted to get some self patterning sock yarn so I could concentrate on 2 socks on 2 circs without worrying about following a stitch pattern. I plan to knit these up on my lunch hour and during the tournament if I have free time.
Of course I couldn't walk out without picking up something else.
I also pick up the Mason Dixon book. I didn't realise it was such a big book. It's gorgeous, the colors, the prints, the stories and the patterns are wonderful. I started a little project from it as well. My daughter saw this page and immediately requested some to hang in her room. Believe it or not, these are the colors on her wall. VERY VERY bright blue and green.
My focus for the next few weeks will be small projects.

A new body

Here's a better photo of my blue gables on my new body. I got her on sale 50% off from Joanne's.I was able to get the measurements perfectly, although, her boobs are a little, um alot perkier than mine. Overall I'm pleased.

Sleep positions

According to this
website, this is my sleep pose. It couldn't be more wrong.

Find your own pose!

This is my true sleep position, at least we start out this way.

Find your own pose!

What's yours, take the test yourself.

Competing hobbies

I feel as if I'm cheating on my knitting. I love to read and I love to knit. I find myself each day trying to decide which I'll do if I have a moment of free time. Lately, I've tried doing both. Read in the morning and knit in the evening. Doing both has slowed down the productivity, not that I've been very fast in my knitting, but this has slowed me down even more. But today, I finally have a finished object and I love it. Presenting, blue gables, forgive the bad mirror shot, all of my photographers are out today. I still have to block it, but the ends are weaved in.


Green Gables
3 skeins cotton fleece, Malibu blue
size 7 and 5 addi turbos
added 1 inch to length

Up next, a trip to sleeve island and seaming of the shawl collar sweater.

Halfway point

I've decided after I finish my gables, I'll work on some of the small projects my family has requested. I think by doing this, (they will get off my back),they will be very happy and I can concentrate on me again. First the scarf for my daughter.
My youngest 2 are on spring break, unfortunately they think mom and dad are on spring break as well. The minute we reach the door after work, they have our evening planned. Monday it was the to the park for 3 friggin hours. Tues, movie night, which worked out for me, mindless knitting. Wed off, cause mom and dad were TIRED. Tonight it's skate depot, ouch. Friday, speed zone. Saturday.... Who knows if I'll make it to Sat.
I hope to sneak some knitting time in to finish this.

Who do you knit for?

Or what do you knit? I've been accused of being a selfish knitter. You see,after the first couple of months of knitting for my youngest daughter, who was very eager and accepting of my knitting, I've primarily knit for myself. I consider myself so new at knitting, so for the last year I have knit things in an effort to learn something. A new technique, a different garment, socks, shrugs, pullovers, shawls. Also to learn a different fiber, laceweight, dk, worsted weight, all in an effort to learn. So yesterday, my eldest daughter, who has asked me to knit her a scarf hmmmm about two months ago, asked when her scarf would be ready. Now I must admit, I did start a scarf for her, but it hasn't been a priority. It's a simple knit 2 purl 2 blah scarf. I'm probably half done. But, I have no motivation to finish it. Sad, I'm such a bad mom. It really won't take that long, but in my defense, I don't have a lot of time to knit. When I do, I want to enjoy it. I want to work on finishing the marble sweater, or green gables. I want to start 2 socks on circulars or toe up socks. I want to knit things that I can wear and feel proud about.
I know my knitting has improved because my family has started asking me to knit items for them. The eldest wants the scarf, a cap, and Lelah. The youngest wants felted clogs, wrist warmers, and a whole pattern book of sweaters. My son wants a pullover vest, and my husband wants socks. How am I to cope with the pressure. I can't possibly add all of these things to my to knit list, and continue to knit for myself. I'm really torn with how to accomplish all of this.
How do you do this?? Any help would be appreciated.

Good news

It fits, whew.... So saying, Bad news, I'm still going to frog, after I finish the sleeves and sew it together. Once you see it, you'll agree. Surprisingly, I'm not that heart broken about it. It's the right thing to do, otherwise I won't be satisfied with the end result.
Here's a flash of my stash project. I like it very much.




Back to knitting!!

Slightly Worried

I'm nervous about the marble sweater. First you know about the different color skein issue, second, I think it's too big. The front and back are on the blocking board now. As soon as it's dry, I'm going to pin it together for a test fit. The thing is, I love the pattern, and it knits up fast, but I really hate to think about frogging it. I really committed to doing a project that needs to be seamed. I want to improve my knitting, and as Linda said in one of her post, go for the extra spicey. I know the way to improve is to move away from the safe projects, to make mistakes that need to be fixed. We learn from our mistakes, but darn it, I will always hate frogging.
So, instead of starting the sleeves of the marble top, I started a new project.

One good reason to have stash yarn. You're always prepared.

Awe Inspiring

Check this Stashout.
Be prepared to drool.

Why......

Impulse buy + stash yarn = Next project.

Novice at work

So, I'm knitting the marble sweater and things are going well. I knit up the back in no time and have been working on the front. All is going well, until I got the the v-neck shaping. The pattern said Work to last 3 sts before marker,(center) k2tog, k1, join 2nd ball of yarn and work as follows...... Ok so I'm thinking what, join 2nd ball of yarn? Do I now knit with both yarns together....nah that can't be right?? Ok do I start a new skein of yarn now?? Well that makes no sense, who would join a new skein in the center of the sweater, on purpose.... Can't figure it out, see I'm still a beginner. Anyway, so what do I do, I start a new skein of yarn, the whole time thinking this can't be right. I knit and knit thinking how do you get a V neck out of this...Something is not right
Thankfully, while reading other blogs I found this entry and bingo it all makes sense. Duh....
After frogging back and working on it today, I'm almost back to where I was..

I should finish the front and I'll start on the sleeves tomorrow. I'm going to do both sleeves at once. I hope to be ready to seam it up next weekend. Wish me luck. Oh as you can see, I'm having the same mismatched skein issue on the front. I know I should stop frog and re knit, but I can't tell the color difference until after it's knit up. For now my plan is to knit it all up, decide if I can stand the difference or not. If not when I frog, I will be able to tell which skeins are the same and leave out the lighter ones. I think I'll end up with one extra skein.

Oh !!!!

Oh my aching tooth. Just returned from the Dentist. I want to knit, knit, knit. I can't due to the pain, pain, pain. Off the couch for drugs. Marble sweater update later....

Be careful what you wish for...

In my last post I wished for rain. My daughter plays soccer and I'd hoped if it rained hard, we'd get out of a weekend of soccer games. I mean this is Southern California, we do nothing in the rain. Everything stops and we go on storm watch mode. We have emergency broadcast announcements warning of heavy flooding and mudslides. So of course, there would be no soccer....WRONG, Saturday afternoon with heavy rains and a light dusting of SNOW, my daughter played soccer. Thankfully, our coach decided to forfeit our game once the snow started, the officials stated they would only call the game for lightning. The girls enjoyed it but they were cold. The parents, well, let's just say, we were not happy. My day of knitting, gone... My fingers took hours to thaw out.

Sunday morning, with cloudy skies and intermittent rain soccer was played.
Lesson learned, don't wish for rain.

Here's my progress on the Marble shawl collar sweater. The back in finished and since this picture, I'm halfway through the front. It goes quick when I have time to knit. As you can see, there's a big difference in color in the skeins. I'm trying to ignore it for now but since this is the back I may ignore it. We'll see how the front goes.

As promised, yarn porn

Lorna Laces Worsted: Not sure for what yet but I love it!!
Karabella Marble for my shawl sweater and some Kareoke for wrist warmers.
For more felted clogs for the family.
Malibrigo, oh so soft, for the Ballet wrap sweater.

And the winner is.....

It's a tie, the darn packages arrived on the same day. Of course, so how do I decide. I whip up a "swatch" ( yea I'll call it a swatch) of both yarns. Both are to die for... but, I couldn't resist the shawl collar pattern. Wendy, I saw your comment this morning, definitely the right decision.
This will be my first project that has to be seamed. I knit up a few rows last night and completed to picot edge. That was so simple and it looks so pretty. I'm not sure why I thought it was hard.
I just heard the weather forecast and it's supposed to rain the whole weekend. Aww shucks, that means no soccer games. Guess I'll have to sit in my comfy chair and knit all weekend.

Oh, and did I say I bought lots of yarn.
Yarn porn later..

I've been a bad bad girl.....

After my great stashing event, aka Stitches west, I bought more yarn, a lot more. I ordered yarn for the ballet wrap top last week from webs and I've been anxiously waiting it's arrival. In the mean time, I've been finishing some of the numerous projects on the needles. Here's one here.


Thuja socks from Knitty.

So, back to my purchases, as I said I ordered from webs, and have been waiting, and waiting for the package. I haven't ordered from them in a while and I didn't realize they were so slow. I'm used to knit pixie, yarn in 2-3 days. Since I'm so impatient,in the interim I've been reading my favorite blogs, one of which is Wendy's. I love the shawl collar sweater she just finished. I tried to resist ordering the pattern and the yarn, but I couldn't. It's all webs fault. If my other yarn came sooner, I would not have succumbed to temptation. I would be happily knitting the ballet top now. So it's a race, whichever package arrives first is the project I'll start. But, what if they both arrive the same day, no, that won't happen.

My new baby

No it's not a wheel. With all of my other hobbies, knitting, gardening and reading, my hubby would kill me if I got a spinning wheel. I'd have to help him, I can't add another hobby....that would take away from knitting time.

Stitches west goodies

I thoroughly enjoyed stitches west, unfortunately my wallet wasn't as happy.
First are the kits: A mini lace wrap(poncho, I couldn't resist), 2 shawl kits and a cute scarf kit for one of my girls.


Next up:Socks that rock yarn, do I have to say more. Once I saw them in person, I couldn't pass it up.


KOIGU!!!!! Who cares for what, probably socks, and I bought the Carley shawl pattern.

Last up, reference material to improve the knitting.


Not too bad, next year watch out. I think I was slightly overwhelmed with all of the choices. I tried to not buy just for the sake of buying. Everything is ear marked for specific patterns. Now if only I could clone myself. I have enough patterns and yarn to knit this year and next.

Oh and by the way, I made that OTHER purchase too, more on that next time.

Finally a FO

Finally essential stripe is finito. I started this on my cruise in December and through all of the illnesses and new job, I've finally finish. One thing I've learned with this project is,, I hate weaving in the ends. Multiple color change = too many freakin ends to weave. I don't think I could ever get into intarsia or fair isle. Once I'm finished knitting, I want to be finished.




Since I took this picture, I've weaved the ends in. Whew, that took a while. I'll try to get a modeled shot on the weekend. I tried to take the old in the mirror picture, but for some reason I couldn't remember how to turn off the ole flash on the camera.
Here's what I've been working on since finishing the essential stripe. Thuja socks from knitty with artyarns supermerino. Very soft.

Quick note

Much to say, unfortunately I can't. My computer is still down at home so this is a fly by post from w....
I've finished my essential stripe and I'm very please with the end result.(Pictures pending) I'm trying to finished some of the many unfinished projects I have on the needles now. Those include some socks, clapotis, vintage velvet,and a ribbed scarf for my Daughter. Once these are done, I'm casting on either Wendy's Something red or the ballet top from the winter Interweave.

I have lot's of pictures from stitches. Of course the stash was enhanced, but not too bad I think. I learned a lot of new techniques from the classes I took. One of those was a switch to continental knitting class. I think I finally have the technique in my brain, I just need to start a stocking stitch pattern to practice. I missed the dinner meetup with other CA bloggers, that was a bummer. My fault, I thought it was Friday instead of Saturday. If I'd had my, soon to be acquired laptop with me, I would have been able to double check the email for the correct day and time. Maybe next year.

Hopefully my next post will be from my new laptop and it will be filled with Pics.