Back to Work...

I'm back at work (have been for two weeks), which has two consequences:

1. I'm getting a LOT more knitting done. (Thank you subway commute)

2. I have a lot less time for writing.

The Morning Pages

I am dragging my ass out of bed every morning at 6 to get some other (non-blog) writing done, morning pages for those of you familiar with The Artist's Way. Aside from the usual bitching about it being so goddamn early in the morning, being groggy, the daily ghetto and weather report, a new book is starting to take shape.

So it looks like my writing brain has at least gotten over some of the heartache of the Nora Roberts debacle. (Details can be found in her book Vision in White) Maybe I can actually write this one in MY voice, once I get past the outline that I'm doing at the moment.

The really good news is that the story is existing in my head during other parts of the day, so I'm kinda writing it while I knit or otherwise get a moment to myself (usually in the bathroom. Ah the life of the working mother, right?), or for that matter when I'm lying in bed at night. So this one shows some promise.

Whisper Cardigan

I've made lots of progress on the whisper cardigan, which rocks. I've done the entire shrug section, and am now working on the collar/waistband. It is taking forever. I've been working on the 1x1 rib for the collar for almost a week now, and I've only gotten through one inch of the three I'm supposed to do. OY.

On the positive side with this cardigan, after finishing the sleeves and back, the instructions said to pick up and knit somewheres around 256 stitches, which is just freakin INSANE on lace weight yarn. I got my friend Auffermann to help out with the math for this, and then completely ignored all his help and advice and just dove in. Somehow I managed to pick up exactly the number of stitches across the entire thing without even counting. How the hell did THAT happen? Some sort of good luck.

I'm not exactly pleased with the way I picked up all the stitches. There are a couple of places where there is a large gap between stitches around the base, but I think that will solvable by a couple of well placed stitches over the top, or just weaving that particular section together.

Also, there are a few places where the seam gets a little bulky, but that will be on the inside of the garment, and unnoticeable (I hope) to the casual viewer.

Veronique

Absolutely no progress on this particular sweater. I still haven't measured what I've done against Ella's body, and I still haven't looked at the next set of instructions in the book.

Eh, she's not dying any more... what's the hurry?

(KIDDING!)

Bruce's Cabled Sweater

I've made a couple more swatches on crappy acrylic yarn, and hated them. I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to cables, and the yarn I was using was completely unsuitable to my needs. I think I might pick up some Brown Sheep for practice cables so that I can see what they're actually supposed to look like. And I need a LOT more practice.

Also, the computer that I bought the pattern on died, so I've been through a ton of related drama. The upshot of it is that I have bought a new computer (goddamnit) and a hard drive enclosure for the old computer. I popped the old hard drive out, put it into the nifty enclosure and voila, I have a new external hard drive, with all my old data on it. Including the pattern for this sweater, which I stupidly have not moved over to the new machine yet.

I will have to do that soon.

Christmas is Coming...

I also started my Christmas list, and have started planning (and making small purchases of materials for) various projects that will be happening soon. Fortunately my Christmas list is rather small, although, CRAP, I just completely forgot about somebody who I should have added to it, so I just ran off and added her name. OY.

Couldn't resist a sneak peek of things to come:


Anyway, my Christmas list is rather small, and if I start this month I should be able to complete projects for everybody in time. I have the materials for four small (and now secret) projects, and will need to purchase materials for two or three more.

My Birthday Gift

My mother, per my request, went to her local yarn store, the T-Spot and bought me some really beautiful sari silk yarn, as well as a skein of gorgeous banana yarn. Don't ask what the banana yarn is, I really have no clue.


(sorry about the craptacular picture. The light went before I could finish doing the photography for this post. Stupid work getting in the way of good photography for the blog. The photo doesn't do the color justice AT ALL.)

Anyway, I've made plans for them, and unfortunately will also be part of some people's Christmas gifts, so I will not be able to post pictures of those WIPs until I actually give them. Which will be in December. (Just in case you didn't realize when Christmas is) Rest be assured of two things:

1. They will be AWESOME.
2. I have great taste. So they will be AWESOME.

SOCKS!

As if I don't already have enough things going on, I decided recently to make my first pair of socks. Yeah. I'm insane, I know. Somebody suggested that I start with Monkey, so that is what I have decided to do. I got some gorgeous Aussi sock yarn in colorway Fall Melody. I'm excited. I will likely cast on sometime this week.

My New Obsession

I'm totally obsessed with Three Irish Girls yarns. They're so gorgeous. And they recently won a bunch of awards at the Dye For Glory contest for the upcoming Sock Summit. My current favorite is Georgia Peach, but so many of their other yarns are gorgeous.