Planes, Trains, and Cars

Replace trains with wheelchairs and you'll have an adequate description of my Saturday morning. At 4:30 AM Zach and I woke up to hop a plane to Salt Lake City, then to have him wheeled (at a high speed I might add) by a nice man in an airport uniform across the airport to our next flight. Once we landed in Denver, we then hopped a bus, rented a car, and drove to a nice lunch, then home. All this took until noon, or 7 hours, including the time change. Or this long:

If you include a hot cocoa break, a long walk, a short nap, and a couple stare out the window moments.

This must have taken it out of me, because I had a blonde moment this morning. My camera kept screaming that it was the battery was "exhausted"... and I kept wondering HOW something that was plugged into the base and charging could be exhausted! After a few minutes of swearing, a deep breath, and a look around I realized that the problem might be this:

 Oops...after plugging it in the camera stopped screaming at me, and things went much more smoothly.

I reconfigured the Triana scarf to make it fit my scarfly needs better. Instead of 12 stitches, I pulled the whole thing out and cast on 6. After several miles of garter stitch later, the result was much more to my taste. Especially since the first version (okay well second, there was a moment where I thought 24 stitches would be reasonable and ended up with a big washcloth) was only about cowl-length. This is the finished product:

(Yes everything gets modeled on the couch, turns out that is the only part of my crap-partment with decent lighting. The flash on my camera makes things look funny colors.)

I also finished the next square for the CAL (crochet-along) that I am doing over on Ravelry.

Which puts me one square closer to being done with my CAL blanket.  Yay! I'm using the leftover yarn from the blanket commonly known as the BEAST to whip these cuties up. If you would like to join in the CAL you can do so here. (This is a Ravelry link, so if you aren't already a member you should join up, its free!) It's motif #88 from Edie Eckman's Beyond The Square Crochet Motifs. Just so you are aware, Edie is also part of the CAL on Ravelry. 

Since getting home I have noticed a few things. 

1) I have really strange neighbors... the person down the hall from me has lawn chairs set up outside. The strange part being that he has several onions piled up in one of them. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what this could be for?

2) The reason my house is messy is because of yarn. It appears I have started several projects in the last few days, and left them all lying about the living room while I moved on to bigger and better things.

3) Unpacking your suitcase in the middle of the kitchen floor in the attempt to find a toothbrush leaves you very unmotivated to actually do anything with the things you've pulled out of said suitcase other than kick them aside and ignore them.

4) If you go to the yarn store as a last minute "going on a trip" thing, to give yourself something to do on the plane, bad things happen. Especially if you are stressed about said trip. I think I must have passed out, or fallen and hit my head or something. Upon sitting down to write this I noticed that while at the yarn store this had happened:

 

Erm...whooops? So much for using up yarn and not buying it. What you see sitting so innocently there is 3 skeins of Berroco Seduce in color "4486" or, as I like to call it, pixie dust. 3 skeins of Schulana Mosco in color 26, I call this "shimmery purple"; and skeins of Bouton D'Or Songe in color 876, which again, I find boring, so I have decided to call it Confetti. Project for these bad boys forthcoming.

As a side note, its February 27th...blanket? What blanket?

OOO what's that?

I'm having a lovely snow day in the middle of Nevada. Which would be fine if I had been smart enough to bring a heavier coat. But alas, I was not, so I am relearning the meaning of "freezing your buns off." Go me. I also, in the attempt to be "smart" brought my tiny computer, which I forgot was not very easy to type on, so bear with the grammar/spelling slips today.

For all of you that were wondering, an angiogram takes this long:

 start to finish....


and yes, this includes stopping to talk to all the surgeons that walk by to say things like "my you look busy!" or  "and what are we making today?" I was forced to fight the urge to respond to that last one with "I'm making toe cozies! What are YOU making?", mostly because I was very confused by the "we".

One of my favorite things about knitting in public is sitting there and watching all the funny looks you get. In the airport this kid sitting across from me kept looking up and staring, then when he noticed what I was making, grinning, and looking away embarrassed (apparently that word has two r'si n it? I've been spelling it wrong for years!). The flight attendant kept making a special point to stop and look in on my progress. Granted this all could have been because during the flight I was not working on socks, but on this:

(pardon the blur, one can only do so much with the shivers and a camera phone)








Which is made using the ever-exciting Triana yarn in purples. It makes me think of a sea anemone, and I love it. You can ask Zach, who has been listening to me dance around singing about ruffles, he will verify. It would be done but it's not a long enough scarf for my liking. I may pull it out and reknit it with less stitches across. Especially since I pulled an oops and somehow didn't correctly estimate the amount of yarn I would need to keep me busy during my little adventure, so I'm perilously close to out (yes, I know 2 skeins of bamboo and a whole sock kit isn't really all that close, doesn't prevent me from panicking).

Anyways I'm off to do some laundry and be a good boyfriend-sitter.  How is everyone else?

When it rains, it pours....

So I am currently dealing with a *teensy* personal crisis in which I am going to have to pack a bag and haul myself halfway across the country. But other than that....well I wish I could say life is good, but to be honest things are a little hectic today. If it was possible for things to go wrong, so far they have, and yes, its only 9 am. (I think the universe has decided to gang up on me, if this is karma, I'm sorry to whoever I wronged) I'm trying to stay positive but at this point I think I might just take a few advil and go have a little lie down for a while....

On a happier note, after 3 hours of sewing in ends, I am now exactly 75% done with the blanket I promised my brother. This blankets the progeny of a little exhaustion and a crazy graph paper doodle that occurred while I was helping him with his spanish homework. While he and I were working out the details on the proposed blanket (color, etc), he mentioned that it would be really nice if he could have a blankie where he just wrapped up, without having to stretch it out and pin it down with his feet (he's on the tallish side). I made the brilliant decision to whip up a 7ft x 7ft blanket. You know, no biggie.

It was going beautifully until I was a point where, 8 stitches from the end of a row on the last row of the color section, this happened:

If you look closely you'll notice there's only a smidgen of yarn left. This irritates me to no end...I hate joins with a passion. And if the time spent weaving in ends is any indication, the idea of having another to deal with? Not so exciting. But I forged bravely onwards, joined the stupid yarn, and kept knitting.


Then...two sections of brown later? It happened again. This time 12 stitches from the end. After some swearing and the decision that something was up, I just joined ALL the brown skeins ahead of time and wrapped them into one big blob to save myself the delays the darning needle hunt kept providing. This is the current state of the blanket:

(Yes, its on display in the kitchen floor, no there's not really enough space there for it so its a tidgen scrunched up. I've accepted my tiny crap-partment. But I live alone so nobody else cares that this is currently where the blanket is still laying)




I was all excited that I was almost done and I had made stellar progress and I would DEFINITELY finish this by the end of February, HAHA TAKE THAT KNITTING, when I got the call that I needed to take a teensy trip today. Since I'm not going to be back until Saturday, this severely hinders the possibility that this will get finished. Mostly because a huge blanket is not really good plane knitting. I'm going to work on it between packing and things until I leave.

On the bright side now I can definitely finish some socks this month! Those are certainly small enough to cram in a bag to take on a plane. Or maybe I will go to the yarn store and buy something new to take with me....I know it would be more logical to work on some of the scarves that I have laying around the house half finished but I live alone, no one else cares about them right? Hmmmm....thoughts?

W.I.P.

Just a little bit of bragging, I finished my fun new squishy scarf! I think it will be my "first day of work" scarf since I'm starting a new job tomorrow.












 It's made using 4 skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca Multi Cotton in Punch. Cast on 20 stitches, K1P1 rib all the way around, slipping the first stitch of every row. Thank you Lily for the inspiration. As a small aside, the last row was quite the adrenaline rush, but I think I called it quits just in time.....

Now, onto the topic for the day!

W.I.P. (work in progress) always makes me think a little bit of R.I.P. Possibly because once something hits that basket there's a good chance it will NEVER get finished. Either that or it will be in limbo FOr-EV-UR (think Sandlot). I made a little list last night of things I had already purchased the yarn and planned out projects for....the total is 40. (YIKES!) What's really bad about that? I'm probably forgetting things. I didn't case the yarn closet to figure it out... The number which I have already cast on but not finished?

20.

Thats a lot. Especially considering I have a *tiny* obsession with blankets. Even more scary? Some of these projects have been in the basket-o-doom for more than two years. AND you know I'll start new things as they strike my fancy. I'm just like that. It's what crafters do. Since it was suggested I provide a list, here it is, in all it's glory, and no particular order, my things to do:

Bead Bracelet, The Purple People Eater (Blanket), Thrumed Mittens, THE BEAST (Blanket), Zach's Socks, Bloomin Cotton Scarf, Dreamcicle Blanket, Robert's half finished woven scarf, Blue mini mochi take to class scarf, a Dragon, a blanket for my brother, January Socks, TicTac Toes- Toe up, The spinning currently on the bobbin, Daisy Chain Blanket, Beyond The Square Motifs-CAL Blanket, Granny Square Blanket, Moth Wings Shrug, Green Bamboo Scarf (another ribbed standard), and a Sunset Ruana.

Note the number of blankets in that list (7, I may have a problem)....

The goal, for now, is to try to finish one pair of socks (a self imposed sock-a-month thing, to try to use up some of my overflowing sock yarn stash), and one project from the list a month. Since we're pretty close to done with February, I decided to pick something smallish and almost finished to set as my goal. I'll be trying to finish the blanket I promised my brother for Christmas. It's halfway  done, I have two HUGE squares left to finish, but I think I can probably do it, if I really buckle down. I'll also be trying to finish up the socks from January, which I half almost halfway done, in a plain old boring ankle sock pattern that I made up myself. Pictures tomorrow!

Welcome to my blog!

I suppose it's time, both for my boyfriend's sanity (let's be honest, he doesn't really CARE about the knitting, but he does care about me, so he listens, and pretends he's really very interested) and my desperate need for company, to start a little blog. I've been inspired by The Yarn Harlot to start my own "Blog". Mostly because I look forward to having a little yarn-venture with her on a regular basis, and also because she has proven that there are a few people that really do want to know about what I'm knitting.

This feels a little silly, but I suppose in time I will get used to it.

For now I have a few little goals, and I'm hoping you all will help me achieve it.

1. Be held accountable for the WIP basket (it's huge, and its overflowing) and the projects in it. Maybe with some people to harass me more projects will get finished than get started?

2. Make some new friends!

3. Learn some new techniques.

For now this is just a little intro, but I'll start posting projects soon! (whenever I manage to find my charger for my digital camera) Ta for now!

-Caitlin