Yawn.

I'm not yawning because of boredom...I'm just so. freaking. tired.

Those of you who were at the meetup last night know exactly why I'm so tired....because I am a sucker for those frozen mochas at Panera, even though I have caffeine about once every two weeks, and I COULD NOT SLEEP last night even though I was completely exhausted.

And you know I just had to have an 11 hour day at work today that was utterly sucky and stressful.

No knitting tonight because I am so tired I would totally screw it up. But I did get halfway through row 2 of the charts on Bayerische last night, and it wasn't too bad, except for 2 things:
1) My ball of yarn is rebelling against me by producing massive fits of tangles and knots. This means that after every half round, I would commence whining and whimpering and announcing how much I hated the yarn...and then Vanessa would calmly grab my yarn and untangle a few more yards for me. (Love ya Vanessa!)
2) I started row 2 of the chart not realizing Panera was closing and they were trying to gently encourage us to leave without actually saying anything to us. I felt a wave of panic as I tried to get it done as quickly as possible. This is why I only got halfway through row 2. I will do the other half tomorrow.

More sockin'

So I cast on for Anastasia last night...and when I finished the toe I had to start over because I screwed up the "wrap and turns"... this happened last time I did a short row toe by the way...but I persevere because I love not having to graft the toe closed. I went for it again this morning and by late afternoon had finished one chart repeat!


I really like these colors. The yarn is actually a little more purple than it looks like here. I thought I did a decent job capturing the color, but I guess not.

And for my Ktog buddies (I know you were worried) I did cast on for the second Bayerische this evening...I am only 4 rounds into the cuff but figure I will finish the cuff tonight so you can all see me swearing at row 2 of the charts tomorrow! I couldn't let you down!

Jaywalkers

Just finished the grafting!



Pattern: Jaywalker
Yarn: STR mediumweight in Ruby Slippers colorway
Needles: Knitpicks Size 1 DPNs

I will definitely do more of these...but for now I need a change.

Breather

I didn't post (and barely knit) over the past week because I was working so stinking much. And when I wasn't working, I was commuting. It was taking me a minimum of 90 minutes each way due to a combination of construction and flooding (from the storms the week prior). I had a big presentation on Friday and spent a lot of evening hours finishing up the prep work. The presentation went extremely well (to 25 people, are you impressed?) - I don't really get nervous presenting, but I am SO glad all the upfront work is finished. And I am the first in a series of speakers, so I get to relax for the rest of them (they are scheduled about 3 weeks apart).

Will be making a second post to show the completed Jaywalkers :D

Now I need to cast on for the second Bayerische sock, as well as another easier sock. Looking at Anastasia, because I feel like doing a toe-up with a short row toe and heel, and this was the only one I was able to find easily.

Halfway.

I know it's been forever since my last post, but I wanted to be able to share this with you:

After 2 months, I have the first one done. I'm not going to be all Second Sock Syndrome about this, but I will probably wait a few days to cast on for the second one. I really want to finish that second Jaywalker, which has been languishing for a few weeks.

Also got some yarn deliveries yesterday! Woo!


The August sock club installment. This is lightweight, for those who are curious. When I will get around to knitting this is anyone's guess, since I am still working on the April one and haven't touched the June one. But I do have some vacation time coming up, so you never know.


20 balls of Wool of the Andes. I am planning to make Cardigan for Arwen with this. The deciding factor for that pattern was - no zipper, no buttons. :) I am planning to make it a little longer than specified, hence the extra few balls.


And some Andean Silk, which is going to become Fetching. Fingerless gloves might be nice to have in 6-8 weeks or so.

Cuteness Overload.

Here is the Presto Chango sweater - it's done except for the buttons (I have had enough sewing for today).

If I have time I will knit another front panel before gifting it, as my niece is a champion spitter-upper, and the whole point of this design is to be able to swap out the front panels without having to change outfits.

Pattern: Presto Chango by Valerie Wallis
Needles: Size 8 Clover circulars
Yarn: Peaches & Cream in Light Grape

What do you think?

I love these books and can't wait for the first movie... I don't tend to go to movie websites but I found this on Jess' blog so I went to check it out and see what my daemon was... My friends are supposed to decide if this matches my personality...so come on, I only have 12 days before it is made permanent!

Bad, bad, bad.

Remember my Startitis? I succumbed this morning:

This is the Presto-Chango baby sweater. I am making this for my niece Julie, who should be big enough to fit into it in a few months. I was going to do a Baby Surprise Jacket, but I decided I liked this one better. I'm using the Peaches & Cream cotton yarn, and it's knitting up much softer than I thought it would. Seems like it will be good.

We had our first tomato harvest this weekend...yesterday we had pasta with fresh tomatoes and basil, for lunch today we had tomato pita sandwiches, and for dinner today:

Yum.

Sunday is bread-baking day, and I also needed to make lemon bars for a coworker who had a birthday this weekend. She's the one who makes cakes for everyone else's birthday, and she loves my lemon bars, so I am making them for her even though I hate making them (they are very very labor intensive)...I do like eating them though! I like lemon in sweet things, but I can't stand lemon in my water, or on fish or chicken, or anything like that. The bars aren't really photogenic, so I didn't take a picture of them.

But during all the baking time today -

I finished the back of the sweater. I only have a couple weeks to get the front done...but given the progress on the back, I should be OK if I focus on it next weekend.

Stitches

So, we're back....you're not allowed to take any photos inside the convention center, and I didn't even try to take any sneaky ones.

We used my GPS to get us there since Rosemont is such a black hole and it seems impossible to find your way to where you are going. We got there without a hitch, but it took us forever to navigate through the parking garage and get a spot. There was also a comics convention going on, and there were a lot of really, um, scary people.

We started off at the booth for The Fold, to get some STR before it got any more picked over:

Lightweight in Fire on the Mountain (I think this is my favorite colorway)


Lightweight in Amethyst (not available on their website)


And Silkie in Ruby Slippers. I love both the yarn and the colorway and can't wait to find the perfect pattern for this yarn.

At Jimmy Bean's, I managed to find the pattern and yarn for the Baby Bobbi Bear:

Pattern (they also had a sample finished one, which solidified my desire to make one)


2 skeins of organic cotton (I have some black yarn I can use for the eyes and nose). If I like making this, I may make them for the niece and nephew for Christmas.

I also searched for Koigu in the purple colorway that Julie made her Web socks (in the title of her blog) out of. Well, I found it in one booth and it looked totally blue, not even the least bit purple. So I found an eggplant-y purple in another booth that was absolutely perfect, and here's what it looks like at home:

More like cranberry. So I should have gotten the other one as well, it probably looked more purple at home too. What's funny is none of the STR colors look the least bit different at home than they did in the hall. Very strange.

And that is actually all I bought. I was looking for some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, and didn't find it anywhere at any price, so I will be needing to do some online shopping for it. I'm also going to place an STR online order for some of the colors I was wanting that weren't available at Stitches.

We also got semi-lost on the way home (that's what we get for the easy trip there I guess). Our exit from the tollway was closed, and it ended up taking us a half hour to get to where we would have originally entered the tollway. We should have listened to the GPS, it kept telling us to turn around until we finally got far enough away. I hate Rosemont. Luckily Stitches is going to be in a different (still local) location next year which should be infinitely better.

Oh - I almost forgot the best part! When we were in The Fold's booth for the second time (Kelly felt she needed to buy more STR), we were talking to Toni about the Kissing Booth story - which I had also sent to Tina at BMFA, and she mentioned that Tina had called her after getting my email and said "what is this kissing booth thing?" Not sure whether or not this is as funny to other people, but it has been several months and the story/joke has not gotten the least bit old yet for any of us.

Home again

The reason I haven't been blogging is that I was away visiting family for a few days.

I saw my favorite nephew...


And my brand new favorite niece.


I knit 4 rows of Bayerische:


And a couple hundred rows of Jaywalker.


I survived 4 flights, including one in a tiny turboprop plane, and one mad dash through the Detroit airport with 10 minutes to connect.

It's good to be home.