Free At Last

SO. since Saturday I'm officially "free from responsibilities" (above and beyond bills & oh yeah, that job that pays the bills, etc.) for the next few weeks and I intend to dedicate a significant portion of that time to knitting, sleeping, and watching bad TV. (And redecorating the apartment, And going to the beach, AND going shopping, AND....the list is long & ambitious........)

Proof positive of the knitting part anyways: I finished the stripey blanket AND the first sleeve of "Bud"! I present you with the evidence:

Bud is turning into an interesting project - yesterday I completely re-wrote the sleeve pattern. GASP. I won't believe that this is a success until I see that right front fit with my grossly tweaked sleeve. Even Husband is rooting for success - I think he's coming around to love BUD (it wasn't love at first site). =) Looks cute on my arm though....

My baby blanket is done and just need a gingham border, but I have a solid 5+ months to knock that out - no sweat. Good thing I'm not trying to pawn off a wool blanket to someone in the middle of summer, that would be really well received! =) By the way, I LOVE it in case you didn't gather that already!

More soon!

"Bud"

Wow, I didn't realize how long it had been since I had posted!

June is heating up (off and on) and I've just got to get to the beach this weekend and wear my blue tunic as a cover-up! I really want to go to Cabo, but I won't hold my breath!

I have kicked off two new projects:

1)* "Bud" from a Rowan mini-book - that my knitting bud Cheryl is also making. Hers is purple and pink and mine is blue and white because I loved the example so much. We also subbed the "Cotton Fleece" yarn for the suggested Rowan Bamboo Soft to make it more wallet friendly, although the bamboo yarn is lovely I was looking for something I wouldn't feel guilty about spending for a whole new project when I have a ton of stash yarn.

Ta Dah!

*Since i posted that comment I've been having some pattern reading+ gauge issues. I like actually knitting the garment, but these technical dificulties have put a kink in things and really slowed me down. LOL, anyone noticing a pattern in my battles with gauge? =) Cheryl also had some size issues and had to rip, so at least I'm not the only onen with these struggles.


2) "Mystery project" which is actually a gift for a friend - I'm officially 2/3 finished with the knitting portion as of Sunday night & hope to finish the rest by this weekend. OK, I'm 99.9999% sure it won't spoil anything for the giftee & I'm not good with waiting to reveal surprises...

I love it and I think its beautiful - its inspired me to make this fantastic blanket with cables from an older Interweave magazine when I'm done with this. Its been in the back of my mind for at least a year now - I'll probably finish it just in time for winter this year!

School's Out for Summer!

Finally, I bring you tunic pictures - it has been finished for about 1-1/2 weeks, but I had to get ribbon for the straps and take a picture of me wearing it when I looked halfway decent, so here it is minus my mid-week post-workout frazzled face =)

Ooh la la - very summery, no?

I liked it and it was an easy knit (except for the swatching), I just hope I will get some use out of it this summer!

I also got a giddy mood-inducing package in the mail yesterday from www.knitpicks.com for my "secret project" - here's a preview of the yarn, but I think it will be more confusing than anything else - see what you think:

Husband and I drove up to San Fransico this past weekend and had a blast shopping, touring, and visiting Alcatraz- one of the cells even had knitting in it! I spaced and didn't take a picture, but they were supposedly using pink yarn which I found hard to believe, but I guess you don't get a whole lot of choices on "The Rock"!

And I thought this was cute - it reminds me of those Yaris commercials, which crack me up:

Other than that I am doing some "spring cleaning" and am planning on frogging quite a few projects that I lost interest in....other than the secret project I will be working on the Honeymoon Cami from www.knitty.com archives and quite a few pairs of socks.

Procrastinating with Knitting

I finished my blue tunic on Saturday and I'm just missing the final touch - a blue ribbon for the shoulder straps. I even went to a craft store to pick it up tonight, but it was already closed - man! I attribute finishing so quickly to:

1) drastically shortening the top due to my short stature
2) I knitted a lot more than I studied this weekend - bad when you have 2 exams and 3 papers to write - don't be like me!


Pictures very soon, very soon!

TGIF

Finished Mom's socks (she liked!) and that means I get to start a new project, right? Well, I have one picked out but its a secret for now! I'm sure the girls at the NLYS will get to see it quite a bit, but no blog posts for now. I bought the yarn on knitpicks today (GOOD prices!) and have been looking forward to having an excuse to make this project for a really long time actually - cool!

The blue tunic is coming along quite well & although its not very exciting to post pictures about - here you go:

That's about all for now - short post because its time for me to go catch up all of my taped TV shows from the week that I haven't had time to watch yet and sadly, I've been looking forward to this all week because I'll also be knitting while I watch.

Did anyone else know June 9th World Wide Knit in Public Day ? Spread the word, my friends...

Baseball, Socks & Those Evil Swatches

Yesterday we trekked down to the Angels stadium for our first attendance since last season! It was fun and I even finished Mom's socks during the first couple of innings! You got to do what you got to do for deadline knitting, even if that means KIP (knitting in public)! The man sitting next to us asked if I was going to finish an entire pair during the game - I wish I was that fast! But the 2nd sock did enjoy itself immensely:

I'm back to the grind at my new job after almost 2 weeks off - geez, it really didn't feel like that long of a break! It's going pretty well, a huge change is how friendly everyone is and how many more women work at this place, a good change - maybe some of them knit!

OK, I'm already don't enjoy swatching. I sucked it up & made one and it was dead-on. So I cast on with haste for the Summer Tunic pattern from the new Interweave Knits edition. And after about 16 LONG rounds I get suspicious that it was too big. And it was....insanely too big. I was in denial for about 6 rounds, so I only have myself to be upset with. But I put it down yesterday and haven't had the urge to pick it up again. I'm trying to think of it as a very time consuming gauge swatch. Sigh.....

And, Yes I know I'm being very melodramatic =) Pretty color isn't it? Can't wait to wear it! (Its Debbie Bliss, Cathay in "Colour 12007")

To answer a comment, I am ear-marking the Koigu I bought for socks...what else can you do with Koigu? Any suggestions??? I only bought 2 skeins of each color so I may have limited myself on other options.

That's all for this Sunday - Husband and I are off to check out Spiderman 3 shortly. Adios!

Weekend shopping

Tomorrow I start at my new job - oooh, very exciting and nerve racking. Hope the first week goes well! I have used this as an excuse to go shopping for some new work clothes of course!

Speaking of shopping, I got a gift card from some of my friends at my old job and I put that towards some stash enhancement - some Flexi for a baby blanket and the rest is Koigu sock yarn, check it out:

One more shopping theme, last night we were wasting time until a movie started (we should never go to a "late" movie - we can't hack it anymore, falling asleep - that was just sad!) and were at the mall and I discovered how cute Baby Gap is. Our nephew is turning 1 in May and we got him the most adorable little outfit. It was all I could do not to buy about 10 more - everything in there is so darned cute! I think it was a mistake to enter that store!