I fell off the wagon.

..but don't worry, I'm back on again. I was forced by life to put down my needles for a while. It seems that I am not super student and I cannot find the time to do a full year course in 6 weeks, while doing another full credit in 12 (meaning I completeled a course and a half in 6 weeks) while working part time and still find time to knit.

All that ended last Friday though when I wrote my final exam for the 6 weeks course. Now I only have class 6 hours a week instead of the 21 I was doing before, and I'm getting better at my job so its less stressful then before. Combine that with pay cheques and hello knitting!!

I had my wisdom teeth taken out last Tuesday. Yes, all of them. I had four and apprently two of them really didn't want to come out so I've been home bound and drugged out of my mind since Tuesday afternoon. During that rather unfortunate time I managed to do what I thought was impossible. Yes people, I finally did it. I knit a sock.

There it is in all its crappy glory. And yes it really is a piece of crap. I'm not going to even bother knitting it a mate. The gauge is too loose (even though it was perfect according to the pattern), the ribbing is too slouchy, the heel it too wide and the less said about the toe grafting the better. But it is a sock. A sock that looks like a sock, and had all the nessary parts required to be called a hand knit sock.

This ridiculous piece of knitting was done on size 3 DPNS with Bernat Sox (75% acrylic 25% nylon) that I'm fairly certain has been discontinued in a colour that I have long forgotten on the name of. But there it is and as much as I insult the sock, I am rather proud of it. I never thought I'd be able to do but now that I can, I think I'm going to be knitting a lot more of them. I've already bought a few balls of Parton's Kroy to make some lovely warm wooly socks for my little sister and freakishly long cold monkey toes.

Also, in my return to knitting I've made a few dishcloths in the shape of cupcakes. I like them. I'll have to remember to take a picture and get around to posting a pattern eventually because they are quite cool. They are actually shaped like cupcakes, none of that purl embossing crap. I made one of those dish clothes and I've decided I am not a fan of them.

And as a finally note on my progess as a knitter, even though I have put the Janda hoodie on hold until fall when I can hold it without my hands getting all sweaty and gross, I have started a new garment. A smaller one for a small person. I'm making the Monica Tank from Knitty.com for my nearly 3 year olf niece (http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring07/PATTmonica.html). She's all excited. I decided to knit it in Lion Brand Cotton Ease because according to her mother, wool of any kind makes her itchy and red, not to mention how much easier a cotton/acrylic blend is to clean. So I let the adorable niece pick which colours she wanted her new 'Princess Shirt' (as she calls it) to me. She picked Pink and Terra Cotta. We all laughed and asked her if she was sure. She said no, then picked purple and yellow. We laughed again and started giving suggestions.

It was finally decided that the princess shirt absolutly must be Pink and White so that it would look like a Sleeping Beauty shirt. So thats what the adorable niece is getting. The body if the tank is white and the ruffle is pink. I've half way though the front of the body. I think its excellent progress. If I keep this up, the niece could be wearing it by Friday!

No progress

Summer classes started. Trying to do a full year credit in 6 weeks while doing another in 12, WHILE working at an actual paying job means I have no time to knit a sweater. I have one finsihed sleeve that I haven't have to rip back cause iscrewed up and 2 inches of the back, Yeah, maybe ill be done by next summer.

I lied, I did get a little knitting done. I joined another craft swap and I knit one thing for that. picture and describtion later, but i will say that I may be going to knitter hell for for blasphmy for making this object.

The First Sweater

My life has been quite stressful recently for a whole lotta reasons that could go on for days. To combat this stress I have decided to knit sweater. Out of the frying pan and in to the fire right? I really hope not.

After looking at dozens of patterns, I decided on the Janda Hoodie from Knit Wit ( http://www.amazon.com/Knit-Wit-Hands-Free-Step-Step/dp/0060740701 ). Yeah I know, there's a copy on knitty.com, but the book version has a more detailed pattern and more sizes. I'm knitting it with Bernat Satin, which regular readers will know is my favourite yarn because its cheap, soft, highly washable and not wool. (Damn wool allergy). Satin had the added bonus of matching the gauge PERFECTLY! I know this because I actually took the time to knit swatches.

Satin also happened to be on sale at Michael's this week. I got all the yarn I need for $18.60 plus tax. Quite the deal for 10 balls of yarn. I had enough cash to buy some scrap booking embellishments and a new pair of straights.

Anyway, I started with a sleeve so I can feel all accomplished before I start the body. Don't mess with my logic. It works for me.

That's about all So far. I haven't hit any major issues so far. But now I've jinxed it...

I miss knitting

I've had no time over the past 2 weeks to actually sit down and knit. My poor needles has sat nearby staring at me as if asking why I don't jsut pick them up and finish whatever project is on them. Oh I wish I could. I've got arm warmers on a set of DPNs that i need to finish because i need those needles to finish a project I'm doing for a swap. Both are near cokpletetion but don't expect anything for at least another week. I also started a feather and fan headband for the spring. I thought it would be a more grown up way to keep my hair out of my face during summer classes than my lululemon headband that jsut manages to slip right off anyway.

Not dead, Just busy.

See main blog for details. Here my vest though. I finished it 12 days ago but its 6 inches too big. see the buckling until my left arm? thas me trying to pull the back together for the picture so it looks right. It shouldn't be so damn big, my gauge was perfect! Perfect I tell you! When does that ever happen? I even knit a size smaller than thier suggestest sizing because its a heavy yarn and i knew it would droop pretty quick.

As for the sock, the first three attmpts failed. ill try again this summer

2 weeks of...

I hate it when life interferes with my various forms of crafting. I had a big paper on Ethnic representation and stereotypes in Grey's Anatomy due last week and it took all my available time for a looooong time! but now its done and I have a few weeks before the next wave of academic hell hits.

I did manage to accomplish something while I was up to my elbows in Grey's Anatomy. I finally finished the Ravenclaw Scarf! Its over 9 feet lone including the fringe. Its about 8.5" without it. pictures will be posted later. I'm too lazy to do it now. I'm at a bit of a lose now. That thing took forever and i had very little else on my needles otherwise.

I took a few days off from knitting while I contemplated my next projects because heaven forbid I actually finished something I started. I wasn't completely idle. I made a Grace Beanie from knitwhits.com. That took about 2 days.It was my 'I'm finally going to learn how to work lace' project. Its not perfect but the hearts actually look like hearts so I'm happy. I kinda wish I hadn't used the crap acrylic I had though. No, I'm not a yarn snob. I actually like synthetics, I sort of have to due to an allergy to all forms of fibre coming off the backs of mammals. This Acrylic is crap though. Its ugly and not very nice to wear. I bought it as practice yarn and that's about all its good for. Back to the point, now that I know how easy the Grace Beanie is, I'm going to make a cotton one for the spring.

On to current projects. Two things were started today after an inpromtu trip to wal-mart to stock up on my favourite Bernat yarns. The first one is a vest from the "Best of Snow" pattern booklet by Bernat (0f course). Its a lovely little book and the yarn it calls for in all the patterns is awesome stuff. It's called Glacier. Its thick and soft and shiny, all the things I love in yarn. It works up soooooooo fat too! I cast on at 10 pm and I already have nearly 5 inches done on the back of the vest. That's taking time to eat, play with my new puppy, and do a little laundry. If I keep this up I can wear it to school on Tuesday.

I'm also making the lace hard from the book too. I refused to buy a book, even if it was less than 2 bucks, without at least using two patterns from it. I'm loving it so much I think I'm going to have to make every last thing in the book lol

My final project it, drum roll please, my first pair of socks! I'm excited. I've done the cuff of the first sock already. It's going faster than I thought It would. I'm hoping the rest of the sock goes as quickly so I can avoid second sock syndrome.

That's all for now, I have to get back to my vest. I just can't stop. Its too soft!

The home stretch is the longest

I have officially pasted the 6 foot mark on the scarf. That was the intended length. Yeah, that didn't happen. I've been forced to start another repeat because the scarf didn't want to end. It wanted to be 8 feet. That's not the point of this blog though because I've already discussed the never ending scarf syndrome and yarn communication.

No the point of this blog is knitting without going anywhere. You know when you first start a project every inch seems like such an accomplishment then by the end you can knit for hours and it seems like you've done nothing even thought you've knit like 18 inches? I'm suffering from that problem right now. I have been watching Grey's Anatomy episodes for a paper I'm writing (Yeah I know, I hate me too) and since I can't just sit and watch TV/computer screen as the case my be, without feeling totally useless, I picked up my ravenclaw scarf that I put in the corner last week as punishment for disobeying my order to finish and started knitting. I knit no less than 18 inches. I haven't actually measured it but it was at least 18 inches yet I still feel like I'm not any closer to finishing. In fact I kind of feel like I'm going backwards.

Yes, I am un-knitting. Not frogging, un-knitting. There must be some magical spell on my needles so that every stitch i knit removed two from what I have already done. That's the only explanation I can come up with as to why after a couple of hours of knitting I am no closer to finishing.

To really drive home this tragedy, Spring has started to open its sleepy eyes here in Toronto. Today is actually a tolerable temperature and it's completely sunny outside. Not that mocking sunshine where it's a completely cloudless day but the temperature is cold enough to make you nose fall off in about 3 seconds. No, the sky is just.... Sunny.

All this work and I won't be able to wear this scarf. Damn it.