And yet again, I wandered away from posting. I’ve been preoccupied with some good and some not so good things, so I will just seize the moments I have and call it good.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned the fingerless mitts I was working on. I’ve been wanting a pair, but nothing was quite what I wanted. Wrong size, wrong gauge, too frilly, no thumb – you get the gist. Anyway, I started playing around, and (3 or 4 prototypes later) came up with one I like. It’s a very simple pattern, with a little cable, and just enough variety every few rows to keep it from being boring. I knocked the pair out watching discs 2 and 3 of season 6 of CSI, and I am by no means a speedy knitter.

I’ve written the pattern up into hopefully intelligible English, and the wonderful Sheri @ Close Knits wants to carry it in her shop! I knit up a store sample for her (in the yummy Araucania Azapa) and they took WAY less than a skein, I’m guestimating ~125-ish yards? I’ll drop those off today, and another set for me will be in the works soon-ish.

I did take a picture, but I’m not loving it. I can’t photograph them well on my own hands, so I am hoping to get a good shot at the shop later. Im the meanwhile, this should give you a rough idea of what they look like.

As fast as these were to knit, I am experiencing an intense love affair with the Hemlock blanket right now, and do not want to knit anything else. I resent any time I spend on other things (work & sleep are highly over rated!) and can’t wait to sit down with it again. I started one once before, but the love wasn’t there. I ripped it, and it sat in a corner, waiting until that “someday” moment that I would pick it up again.

That day was Tuesday – the 4th anniversary of my Mom’s death. I wanted something to divert my hands and head. Something that would be interesting without too intense, yet not so boring my attention would drift. I have always found Emily Ocker’s cast on fiddly – no offense meant, just wasn’t working for me. I was never quite able to get the smooth results I’d seen so many others achieve, so I decided to see what else I could use. It was worth the efforts.

Daniel is a genius! His version of the Disappearing Loop Cast On was exactly what I was looking for – it was simple, it made sense to my hands, and the result is a less “belly buttony” cast on, with no visible hole. I practiced it a time or two to make sure I had it right, and away I went. I knit on Hemlock a good chunk of the day, and I am now sneaking in a round or two every chance I get. As those rounds get bigger, that’s getting harder to do

I haven’t taken any pictures of it yet, but I doubt anyone reading this hasn’t seen their fair share of this blanket by now. If you really feel the need to see something, you can look at the Ravelry pages here or the Flickr tag set here.

There you have it, the past few weeks (mostly) in a nutshell. I’m going to finish my delish Vanilla Chai tea, and then off to the outside world for a bit.

Happy weekend!

Hooray – we’ve made it to Wednesday! I’m pretty excited about the week coming to a close because I’m leaving work early on Friday and have a fun (3 1/2 day!) weekend planned. More on that at some point, but for now, just a short and sweet post to share 2 things Cat and I found at Borders the other night. OK, to share those 2 things and to not break the rhythm of posting

Wandering around in Borders last week, we found ourselves with a bit of time to kill so I plopped myself down in front of the slow cooker cook books and Cat found a spot next to me. We were both pulling books out and flipping thru, and while I was busy lamenting the pathetic lack of pictures in the slow cooker cookbooks, Cat stumbled on these 2 cuties:

Fun, right? I’m so easily amused!

And maybe easily distracted…. that’s all I’m sayin’

This past Saturday, Corey and I went to Janet’s house where we enjoyed the afternoon with some of the Charlotte Purls that I haven’t seen in far too long. It’s wonderful to spend time with people you genuinely like, but when you get to enjoy their company AND watch and learn from Meg Swanson (by way of DVD, although in person would have rocked!) too, it makes it even more enjoyable.

I’ve thought about making a Baby Surprise Jacket more than once but somehow it never happened. The Purl’s are making one as the Fall KAL, and when I heard they were planning a meeting around the DVD, I knew I had put it off long enough. Of course, there are no babies on the immediate horizon (that I know of anyway) but that doesn’t mean I won’t start one anyway. Now that I have seen it done, I can’t wait to make my own. Watching Meg knit this sweater and seeing it progress intensified the appreciation for Elizabeth’s genius, for the simplistic elegance of this timeless pattern. I know I’m preaching to the knitting choir, but that doesn’t make it any less true. I also really want to order a bunch of the DVDs now too – good thing the holidays and my birthday are coming (a girl can hope!)

While I would like to start one right now, I need to finish up some things 1st. I know me – too many WIPs and nothing will get done! I am making progress though – the Malabrigo Cowl is at 5 inches, and I don’t think I’m going to take it the whole suggested 9.

I’m thinking maybe another inch or so, then I’ll do the finishing 3 rows of garter and call it done.

I also reached the halfway point on the waterfall scarf – 1 skein down, 1 to go.

I think the gauge is a bit too tight but I think once I drop the stitches down, it will all even out.

As soon as those two WIPs are done, I will likely cast on for the BSJ and who knows what else from my queue. I have so much I want to do (and not just knitting! I have a bunch of books piling up too!!) and just not enough time in the day. Someday…

One last thing before I go… I’m so blown away I had to share. The other night we went out to dinner, and I snapped a picture of a newspaper kiosk outside the restaurant. I thought it was one of those tongue in cheek social commentary kind of things that was interesting/funny/borderline sad but true kind of things, so I shared it with a few friends by email, and tossed it up on my Flickr account. Imagine my surprise as I watched it jump from 500 views to 1,000 to 10,000 to the 70,000+ views it has as of this writing. I know it isn’t that big of a deal in the scheme of things, but I still thought it was pretty cool (and kind of surreal!)

And now, off to the gym I go Happy Tuesday!

Every have one of those weeks that isn’t bad, per se’, but just takes forever to get thru? That’s so been my week. I’ve had a few issues here and there, and a dear friend has some stuff on his plate right now that is very upsetting, but really, for me, it hasn’t been that awful – and yet this week felt like a month of Mondays. I will be happy when the day os over, and I’m home for the weekend.

My usual Friday morning routine is slightly disrupted today as my standard Friday Dunkin’ Donuts for the office run is postponed a few hours. I have an early Dr appointment, and then in to work. I’m keeping my fingers crossed it makes the day go faster ;)

The week being as busy as it’s been, there has been very little knitting going on. I think I did 3 or 4 rounds on the Mal Cowl already in progress, so it isn’t even worth a picture. I did start a new scarf though from the 101 Designer One Skein Wonders book though from some very yummy Malabrigo chunky in the Stonechat colorway. I have Aimee to thank for this lastest cast on, since I saw her WIP in the Applewood Malabrigo and she mentioned what a great public knitting project it was (and she’s right).

That’s the Waterfall Scarf shown in blue. Its a very simple knit thru the back loop forever and ever and ever and then an interesting bind off/drop stitches finish that leaves you with a very pretty open scarf. You can see what other folks have done with this scarf here (ravelry link)

Once my brain wraps around knitting thru the back loop every row, I’m ok, but the 1st 4 or 5 rows when I pick this thing up is a struggle against what my hands want to do and what I’m supposed to do.

The scarf has just a little competition for my attention this weekend – the new Yarn Harlot book and a new slow cooker cookbook that both need perusing. (Can you tell I’m loving the return of a slow cooker to my life? More on that later…)

Corey is making one too, hers in some gorgeous Mango Moon. We’re getting such different textures and fabrics from the different yarns we’re working with and I can’t wait to see how they both come out.

One last thing before I hop in the shower and head over to the doctor – my wonderful friend Illiane is participating in the Susan B Koman 5k fundraiser tomorrow. She is having a raffle of some fun prizes in exchange for your donation to this VERY important cause. For every $5 you donate, your name is thrown into the hat. The deadline for the raffle entries is today, so please go check out the prizes and if you have even a bit of room in your wallet, go ahead and donate.

Happy weekend!

Back in July, Corey and I decided to start the Great American Afghan. We had no time line, and we wanted it that way – a nice, sideline project for in between other projects. I had no specific recipient in mind either since I wasn’t sure if I would want to keep it for myself, or if I would want to send it to my Dad, or one of my Aunts. I just knew I wanted to knit it.

We bought the book and the 1st color of Cascade at Close Knit and started slowly. I planned to buy the yarn as I was ready for squares in that color, which would make buying 22 skeins a bit easier on the bank account.

We’ve finished 3 squares so far, and have decided on which one will be next. We’ll probably start the next one in the next week or so. We’re not doing them in numerical order, and the randomness is adding to the no-pressure philosophy behind this project.

Here are the ones we’ve completed (shown in the order we knit them) in all their unblocked glory.

Square # 20, Cascade 2452. The leaves on this (hard to see in the picture, and honestly, in person too) were annoying, and I’m not sure how much like leaves they look.

Square # 18, in Cascade 2440 Once I decided to ignore the patterns direction for M1K (and M1P) in favor of KFB and PFB, I was much happier with how this knitted up.

Square # 25, also in Cascade 2440. Yes, I know the colors don’t look the same. Blame the dreary grey day. I had no issues with this square really. The button stitch instruction looked kinda odd but after I did it once, it was second nature (and easy).

Next on the list is Square 8. It has 3 charts in it, and while I have knit from charts before, I haven’t knit from 3 charts at the same time. Even though I am a little freaked out, I’m looking forward to it because I know once I get it started, it will be great. (how’s that for positive thinking?) Of course, any words of multi-chart work wisdom are always welcome.

The birthday cowl is still OTN, as is another project I just started – an easy knit, perfect for lunchtime and other public knitting times. More on that tomorrow (at the risk of jinxing myself, I might actually be remembering how to blog regularly)

I have a bunch of catching up to do, here on the blog, and on Ravelry. I started out by uploading pictures to flickr this morning, and kind of updating my Ravelry projects a bit. It’s not much but it’s a start.

I have a few WIPs to share, but not all in one post. That will hopefully give me some fodder for updates through the week, and maybe I’ll find my blogging grove again. Or not. Either way is really ok.

I bought some Malibrigo a month or so ago with the intention of making a shrug as a gift, and while I loved the knit, I realized the colors weren’t really right for the intended recipient, but I knew someone who would love them. They, however, are not a shrug wearing type, so I decided to rip. I started right back again though with a Birthday Cowl (that’s a Ravelry link, non ravelry folks, click here) I’ve taken to calling it my “Mal Cowl” and have been knitting it plopped on the couch, watching TV when time allows. It is a fast knit, and I hope to have it done very soon.

It calls for 9 inches, but I don’t think I will go that long. I was thinking of stopping around 7ish. I’m just a bit past 4 inches now, so we’ll see how it looks (and feels) when I get there.

If you happened to click over to the Flickr pages, you’ll have seen I also finished up 3 of the squares for the Great American Afghan, bought more Malibrigo, and shared the pictures from Sheeps Wooly Walkabout. I’ll get to all of these things later in the week… I’m pacing myself

As for now, I’m going to go off somewhere and watch TV and knit. I woke up in the middle of the night with an icky tummy, so I’m planning on just taking it easy today. Hope the day finds you in good spirits with good company!

So the last time I was drive by blogging, I was trying to get some progress made on the baby sweater, with little luck. That hasn’t changed much, since I have been working some pretty hairy shifts the past week. I have made a little progress though, and when I finish up here, I will be getting in my Wii Fit time (can’t stop advanced step or rhythm boxing. Hooked is an understatement – I like the other stuff but those two are my faves), and knitting for awhile before headed back into work. Again.

I think I may have shared these, but Im not sure (sorry for the possible repeat)

That was then. This is now.

Slow and steady – I grab a row or two when I can. I need to can more though, since the baby is SO due soon… (unborn babies don’t accept bribes, right?)

Aside from working 80 gazillion hours, I have been sucked into the void that is Plurk. I have no idea how to explain it other than it is silly and fun an full of nanner goodness. Come over and see for yourself.

I also FINALLY succumbed to the goodness that is the Loopy Ewe. I don’t know how I witheld this long, but I am now 1/3 of the way to Loopy Groupy status.

There will be more details on that delivery tomorrow (and the Ravelry stuff in there too). I have a little reporting to do on a certain Little Loopy’s behavior! I just am about out of time if I want to get any knitting in after my Wii Fit before it’s time to head to work. Again.

Happy Saturday all!