knit1frog2

do zombies knit?

So I stayed up until 4:30AM (gosh today!) b/c I couldn't turn off my brain...I didn't wake up until 10:30AM and now I'm feeling extremely slow even after my coffee.  I wanted to tell you something...what was it...hmmm...

Oh yes!  That's right, last night when I got home, I found a package at my door.  In recent light of the fingernail/sherpa disaster, I decided to be a smart girl, go INto my place first and unload everything before picking up the package...(phew).  See, you can't say I don't learn from past mistakes.

'Cept when I went to open it this AM, of course I pushed that nail slightly backwards and OMG ow ow ow.  This was what was in the mailer:

love the taper here

The funny thing is, I bought this book sight unseen (well technically I saw the cover...), but after seeing her on Knitty Gritty, I knew I had to buy it.  Funnier yet, the sweater that I wanted to knit was the one that Stefanie is wearing in her bio picture.  Me likey.  Some of the patterns characteristically use bulky yarns and that is cool b/c what a quick knit that would be!  For people like me though, I'm still not convinced it is a good thing frame-wise.

Okay off to work--I left my invisalign sitting on my desk.  grrr.

holy crap.

OMG OMG OMG.

I came home (late) tonight after a little retail therapy (yikes! and no yarn to boot!) and after spending some time with my friend SS, I once again schlepped everything up the stairs to find a box at the door.  Okay, most sane people would have opened the door, put everything down that was currently being carried, inside (laptop bag, shopping bags, mail, coffee mug, purse, lunch bag, 2 books...) THEN come back for the box.  No.  Not me.

I reached down to pick up the box along with everything else I was carrying and well, I tried to pick up the box underestimating the weight.  It and the books crashed to the floor and I felt my nail break on my left ring finger.  I didn't want to look, but it was starting to sting.  I looked and well...here it is:

please excuse the cuticles & the blood.

The stinging sensation was worse than I could have imagined and the blood was EVERYWHERE.  It got on my borrowed books--argh.  Seriously, the pain rivaled my laparotomy--darn fingers and their many many nerve endings!!  So look at the picture.  See where the nail actually broke so deeply into the quick?!!  The end of the nail has also pulled completely away from the quick as well in some areas.  It looks like it's still attached only b/c I have superglued it back together and made it clear looking and yes, that stung like hell as well.  Clearly only superglue won't last...ChinaSilk, here I come.

Yup. I might be sidelined for a bit.

and it's pink!

I came home feeling like a sherpa with my laptop bag on my back, my workout bag over my shoulder and my purse in my arm...schlepping up the steps to find a package sitting at my door.  What?  I had NO idea what it could be.

It was this...

magazine #41

I didn't expect the Rowan International items to arrive so quickly!  While I didn't necessarily find a lot of things in here that I would immediately knit, I still love getting these in the mail.  The Rowan gift was also in the package.  I find those hilarious!!  Remember the first one that I received?  Man, I'm STILL laughing!!  Things that I would never knit in a zillion years, but hey, it's still fun to get and to try to figure out what else to do with the yarn right?

Editor's note:  Rowan International link above has been updated to take you to the page with this year's gift ^_~

can't stop...

Okay wow.  I can't put this down unless I absolutely have to.  I haven't even wound the hank into a cake yet (odd I know).

Look how far I've gotten...

yay!  sooo much done!

I'm seriously amazed how far I've gotten. I've only had 2 snafus...one occured while watching TV and the other occured just having brain freeze.  It was SO weird.  I was happily knitting along...la la la...and I couldn't for the LIFE of me remember what the pattern was!!  I looked back, I stutter-knitted...and just could NOT get it.  I had to look at the pattern to reset my brain.  Man that was weird.

The pattern is really pretty and it's obvious that it will need blocking b/c you cannot see the YO holes.  For a closer view, click here.

I had a massage today, I'm really ouchy.  I should put the scarf down so I let my arms rest if only a few hours...I...cannot...stop.

Good thing I'm meeting a friend for dinner tonight and have to leave soon, otherwise I'd be a goner.

cha-ching!

Met Z this morning at Macrina for coffee and to fuel up before our visit to Hilltop to peruse the yarns and whatnot.  They had the 20% off thing going on and well, I'm glad they did b/c I didn't realize that Blue Sky Alpaca was that darned expensive.  Ever since I saw the scarf they had hanging in the store, I've wanted to knit it.  Sure enough, when we went back, they had gotten in the exact color that I had wanted...

soak wool wash starter pack!

Sadly, my one hank of Blue Sky was as much as Z's 4 hanks of blue (what a shocker I know, blue!!) yarn that she picked up.  I would never have picked up that book up there.  I didn't even realize Tracey Ullman was on it (I LOVE her!  She's hilarious!), but I was pleasantly surprised at the projects inside of the book.  I think it really helped that they actually had many of the sweaters on the table around the book (smart, very smart...) so we could feel, see and try on the items!  I was sold as you can see from the picture.  I really didn't feel like picking up the EIGHTEEN balls of Karabella Aurora for one of the sweaters on this trip, especially since I have so many things on the needles right now.  I need to get some of them done, I am feeling a bit anxious with so many unended things.

I need to figure out what I'm going to do with the not-so-Simple sweater.  The pattern obviously didn't figure in MY bust in, so it's not fitting as well as I had hoped.  To go back and add short rows now would mean I would need to take the sleeve out (yes, only one), undo the shoulders and frog the collar off of the sweater, frog the front panels down and reknit it.  sigh. 

Still.  not.  decided.

In the meantime, yes I couldn't resist, I cast on for the new scarf and wow is it soft.  I've got 6" done, 27 more to go for this part...

I do have the back almost completely done for the cnr though!  I'll be doing japanese short rows for the shoulders and I'm feeling all smart about that, yet kind of daft at the same time while trying to figure out how to do both sides at one since it's been so long since I've done shoulders this way.

baby pants...

They're done!  Take a look:

Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece & Rowan cotton
US5 circulars, twisted cord string to cinch!

They needed another hit of color at the hem since I made the waistband green...

And, I have to say that I do like how the inside of the waistband turned out. There is the little 1/2" of elastic to help with snugness, but ahhh, no whipstitch to be found!! :)

so simple and clean looking

Now I can put these away until the baby comes! yay!

stress...less?

Way back when, when I started the whole knitting thing, it was to reduce stress.  Even when the pattern is complex, there is a kind of zen to the whole thing...it allows the mind to think about something else, if only a short while.

So imagine my surprise when I thought I was relaxing one evening after work, knitting away on the cnr only to find I was knitting SO tightly that the finger pad on my left ring finger was um, numb.  It was SO numb in fact that it stayed numb for a good portion of the next day!  (I noticed in the shower when washing my hair.)

Later that day I got to thinking...if I was knitting THAT tightly, then um, I'm sure the sweater would be way too small.  Last night, I cast on again with a different ball of yarn just to see.  Sure enough, check it out...

top is less stress...bottom is while stressed out!

So well, no I am not a small girl, so that bottom piece would have never fit.  Can you say "ribbit?!"

Last weekend Z and I went to the Seattle Knitting & Fiber Arts Expo where I picked up the following...

I adore pink and chocolate

And of course I couldn't leave this behind either...

looks like chocolate cherries!  yum.

Then when I saw this DB Baby Cashmerino at Z's house, I knew that I had to get some for myself...so I made a quick trip to the local yarn store for 20% off the following!

dontcha just love a sale?!

updates

Okay, try 2 after the unsuccessful update try last night.  Sooo, where do I start?

Here perhaps...

blue jeans on that bum!

I started one of the Jess Hutch bears at my brother's house over Easter. Somehow I have miraculously gotten my niece and nephew to be okay with me knitting when I'm around them...in fact it went something like this:

   me:  Hey MPC, would you wear a knit hat with something cool on it?

   mpc:  YES!!!  Can you start now?

   me:  well, no, but I can start as soon as I get the yarn!

   beebs:  Is that there (the bear body) for me? 
      (it wasn't, b/c who knew she'd want one!)

   me:   um...did you want one?

    beebs:  YES. KEEP knitting!  HURRY UP!

Even if I took a break to get a sip of water she'd tell me KEEP KNITTING!!!  Ahhh, yay! 

In the meantime, I did go to the yarn store in my neighborhood that is selling off all of the items due to retirement...and I started on my nephew's hat!

can you tell yet what this will be?

Ooooh, I sure hope it fits his head!  So I read an article about intarsia and knitting in the round on Knitty, curious...I am knitting this by stranding inside the hat...we'll see how it works.  I suppose I can always redo it if needed (read, if stranding has made the hat too tight), right?

Sockapalooooza4 signups are open now!  After missing the last one, I am SO in for this round!  Sign up will ya?  It's so fun to make and receive socks!

Oh yes, and I need to order the zipper for the Simple.  Man, and I need to order the safety eyes...so much to do, so little time...I need to pack my bag for workout tomorrow and it's already past my bedtime.  argh.

poop

I had a post all ready to go with exciting new updates (ha!), just tweaking the last bits and um, IE crashed.  gah.  I lost everything.  I also lost a couple of emails that I had in the queue.

I'm going to bed now and will try again tomorrow...sigh.

delivery5

Well gosh...after a rip-roaring cardio extravaganza around MI (822cals burned!), I came home to find this...

If I can't find it here, I won't period.

This was only one page of the card, there are six pages total--amazing and so colorful and exciting to see all of the colors in one place...ahhh, there is just something so relaxing about it all. 

Thanks to Sparkly Spiral Girl I was motivated to move forward with the Simple sweater...finished up the 2nd sleeve and got it blocking last night!  Now that the colorcard is here, I can pick out a zipper and then I can get to wearing my new sweater...!!

Hope everyone has a Happy Easter tomorrow!  For once, I don't have to cook... ^__^