Well, I spent a lot of the weekend trying to recuperate from this damn cold, and took Monday off work, too. Hence the delay in updating this journal. Hence also the fact that even though it's been five days since the last update, not a lot of knitting has taken place. But that's okay, because the tradeoff is that I'm feeling way better. Hoorah.

Catherine Parr sweater for MIL

Started the redo of the back border - I'm about 2" in.

NEW - Fair isle hat for DD

Friday evening, DD's daycare provider forgot to pack her hat to go home with. Thus I discovered on Monday that DD has outgrown all her other hats except for one which is excruciatingly girly in a very old-fashioned frou frou kind of way. Yes, she looks cute in it (she looks cute in everything), but the thing was really ridiculous. Plus, the hat that was still at daycare was starting to get a little small anyway. So Monday while I was at home sick, I whipped up a fair isle hat for her from a Patons pattern ("Small Wonders" booklet #500751, the hat on the front cover), using up a bunch of my yarn scraps. It should fit her for a while. It has ear flaps and a nifty tassle. DD looks tremendously sweet in it, and she got a kick out of seeing herself in it in the mirror this morning. Success!

Catherine Parr sweater for MIL

Front is now done! Yippee! Now it's time to fix the bottom border on the back - although I used the needle sizes the pattern calls for, the first three rows are waaaay too loose and the fair isle section is too tight. So I'm going back and redoing the border for the back with varying sizes of needles so it works properly, just like I did for the front, which looks much better. I'm casting on the stitches now. I'll graft it on after I've cut off the old border.

Stornaway sweater for BIL (cream)

Neckline ribbing continues.

Well, clearly I'm feeling better, because some knitting got done last night and this morning. Not a lot, but it's better than nothing. On the other hand, I went to bed at around 10:30 last night instead of kicking in early like a sickie is supposed to, and I'm probably feeling worse than I should this morning.

Spanish Knight sweater for Mom

The seller's second auction for 10 skeins of lava silky wool was bought early via Buy It Now. Sniff. I'm hoping she'll put up another one!

White leggings for cousin's baby

The baby was born! Which means I'm definitely axing this project so I can send the hooded jacket off ASAP.

Catherine Parr sweater for MIL

I'm almost done the neck shaping on one side.

Stornaway sweater for BIL (cream)

Well, the Magic Loop thing didn't work because my circular is too short. So either I need a shorter one to more easily fit the stitches around the neck, or a longer one to do the Magic Loop with. Sigh. In the meantime, I continue to stretch the neckline stitches around the circular I've got now. Ribbing continues.

Ugh.

Sick. As. A. Dog.

Fever, sore throat and muscle pain hit yesterday. Congestion is threatening. DD has given me her cold. Fortunately, DH is further into the cold than I (i.e. he's over the fever and dizziness), and was able to do most of the chores last night, so I went to bed around 7:45. So, absolutely no knitting has been done - I'm now spending all my time on commute dozing.

Stornaway sweater for BIL (cream)

Looked up the Magic Loop thingy. It definitely looks promising. When I get my health back, I'll try using it. It has to be more convenient than how badly I'm stretching the neckline stitches around the circular needle right now.

Jade Starmore sweater for Mom

Well, surprise surprise, I didn't win the auction for the silky wool. However, I did get a 2nd chance offer from the seller at my highest bid. However, since the seller now has another identical auction where the Buy It Now price is 35 cents less than my highest bid, I'm going to pass on the 2nd chance offer. I am, however, kicking myself for not making my highest bid lower so I could have really taken advantage of the 2nd chance offer! Oh, well. We'll see how this second auction goes.

Stornaway sweater for DH

I have decided to ax this project. Or, rather, replace it with something else. I have come to the conclusion that by the time I finish the two Stornaway sweaters for both BILs, I will never want to look at the pattern again! So although I do want to make something in forest green for DH, I will use another pattern. Maybe from Alice Starmore's Sweaters for Men book? I have a copy on the way to me right now from an eBay seller. Very exciting!

Happy 30th, Adrienne!

Well, I know it's going to look like I got a lot accomplished over the weekend, because of all the projects I made progress on, but overall there wasn't a whole lot of knitting going on. However...

gift for baby Rosatelli

Well, apparently the ultrasound says this baby is going to be a boy. Personally, I don't believe it. The last, like, ten babies born to people in this department have all been girls. Even one baby that an ultrasound said was going to be a boy turned out to be a girl. So my theory is that either the ultrasound is wrong, or my co-worker is going to be getting a new job in another department before the baby is born! However, I'm not going to make a dress or anything like that just to be pigheaded about my theory. I've decided on a very nice two-coloured textured sweater Patons pattern. I'll be doing it in forest green and white. My co-worker has strong colouring (Italian) and although I think his wife is fairer, their child stands a good chance of being able to wear forest green very well. I'm going to alter the colour scheme a bit, though - the pattern calls for mostly a single colour throughout, with a bit of a motif in a secondary colour on the yoke. I'm going to change it up to make the forest green more prominent - the bottom of the sweater will be white, then the yoke will change to forest green and the secondary colour on the yoke will be white. It should look pretty stunning. I'm currently about 4 rows away from being done the ribbing at the bottom - niftily enough, the pattern calls for knitting in the round, which will make the project even more fun than I originally anticipated.

Elizabeth I sweater for moi

I finished the tension swatch. The row gauge is perfect. The stitch gauge is out. AUGH! Doncha hate it when that happens? However, it's only out by two stitches every four inches, and since this is a pretty small sweater, and since I am a pretty small person, the loss of one or two inches around the circumference is not going to ruin it for me. In fact, it will probably make it fit better. So I've started. I've got about an inch and a half done so far.

Catherine Parr sweater for MIL

I estimate that I'm just two rows away from being able to start the front neck shaping.

Stornaway sweater for BIL (cream)

Shoulder straps are done! Those were fun - and man, they look cool. I'm very stoked about how this sweater is going to look. I'm now several rows into the 4.5" neck ribbing. My problem is that the circular needle I'm using is barely small enough to work - it's pretty awkward. I'm going to look up that Magic Loop thing I've heard about and see if it can help. Failing that, I'll just have to buy a smaller 2.75mm circular needle.

Stornaway sweater for BIL (blue)

No work was done, other than moving all the working stitches onto different needles to free up various sizes of circulars for the cream Stornawawy sweater, but one of the other things I did this weekend was figure out a good gift ideal for this BIL for Christmas. So now there is no pressure to complete this sweater this year! (Other than the usual pressure of the softness of the alpaca calling my name, of course.)

It's a miracle - I got some good sleep last night! And yet I still got some knitting done...

Elizabeth I sweater for moi

Work proceeds on the tension swatch - I'm close to finishing. However, I've been checking the gauge as I go and it looks like the yarn is a little small. Waaaaahhh! But, given the size of the completed project given in the pattern and the fact that I am very small myself, I can probably still make the yarn work. I shall finish up the swatch and see where I am once it's done.

Catherine Parr sweater for MIL

Still going! Unfortunately I didn't get too much done on this yesterday. But I'm probably about 4cm away from starting the neck shaping on the front.

Stornaway sweater for BIL (cream)

Started the shoulder straps! Very exciting (albeit awkward) stuff. Highly cool. I can hardly wait to get home tonight so I can keep going!

All in all, not one of my more productive days, yesterday. But as long as I get something done, it's not a total waste.

Alright, self, repeat after me: I. Must. Stop. Staying. Up. Late. To. Knit.

Elizabeth I sweater for moi

Finished enough of another project that I was able to free up my 3mm straights last night! I have now begun to do a tension swatch using the cashmere/cotton blend doubled. I'm only a few rows into that, but it looks so far like I'm getting gauge, which is wonderful.

Catherine Parr sweater for MIL

Work continues, as always. I'm now done 17" on the front. Less than 5.5 centimetres to go before I can start shaping!

Stornaway sweater for BIL (cream)

Woo hoo! I finished the back! Now I am all set to start the shoulder straps (yes, the pattern calls for shoulder straps, yay). I do need to fish out some of my other jumper-weight NZ wool so I can start the straps in a contrasting colour, but otherwise I'm all ready to go. Wow. This is really coming along.

Stornaway sweater for BIL (blue)

No progress, but I did have to put all the stitches on a holder to free up my 3mm circular so I could continue work on the cream Stornaway sweater. And that meant getting another feel of the alpaca. I just about melted. Unnnhhh, that stuff is niiiice.

Curse you, Legends of the Fall. I've seen you more times than I can count and yet I still stayed up past my bedtime watching you on TV last night. Damn, but I have no self-control. Although, I must admit that the desire to Just. Keep. Knitting. probably had more to do with staying up so late.

Latest progress:

Spanish Knight sweater for Mom

Oh. My. Gawd. On a whim, I did a search for the Lavold silky wool on eBay. There was only one auction there - ten skeins in lava, currently at $37.50US. !!! This is exactly the colour I wanted for my mom, and exactly the right number of skeins! Not to mention currently going for exactly the right price, although I guarantee that will change, since the auction doesn't end for another five days. I'm sure by the time it ends, the price will be far beyond my means, but at the moment the whole thing seems quite meant to be. We shall see.

Catherine Parr sweater for MIL

As usual, work proceeds. I've done another 1.5 inches on the front. With any luck I will be able to start neck shaping today or tomorrow. I've also wound a centre-pull ball of the black wool I'm using for this project, which is far more portable and practical than carting around the big cone.

Stornaway sweater for BIL (cream)

Got lots done last night! I now have fewer than 10 rows to go on the back before the shoulder! I'm so excited! Whee!

Crap! Somehow I managed to erase this entry from my journal. Well, I remember I talked about being really tired. I also mentioned that during my visit with my parents last night, my mom took me to the apartment of a lady in her building who is an avid knitter and crocheter, well into her 80s, who used to own a yarn store. This lady is now having too much pain in her shoulders and trembling in her hands to continue her crafting ways (and I fervently hope this never happens to me), so she's offloading her supplies and stash, free! Admittedly, the stash wasn't very good - most of it was odds and ends of acrylic. But there was some acrylic nice enough to take home, and I also took away a bunch of needles that will make great additions to my collection. There was also an English or Canadian needle gauge in the tin of supplies which has a 3mm hole! Happy me.

I did manage to save my progress list:

Ljod cardigan for moi

Okay, I didn't actually get any work done on this, but I did fish the project out so my mom could feel it. Boy do I want to get back to this project! The yarn is sooo yummy...

Catherine Parr sweater for MIL

Work continues! I've now got almost 14" done on the front. I'm about ten centimetres away from starting the neck shaping.

Spanish Knight sweater for Mom

She loves the Lavold silky wool. Of course she does - it's the most expensive of all the samples! Argh! But she does really like it. And the lava shade would really look great on her. Sigh. Maybe I'll keep a lookout on eBay. I have a year, after all...

Well, the knitting vacation time is over and I did get a lot accomplished. Not a lot of naps were taken, unfortunately, but boy, did I do lots of knitting! Here's the latest progress report:

Anne Feitelson slipover for Grandpa

I went through all the colours in the pattern and figured out what kinds of colours I should be getting to substitute. But I also want to see how affordable it would be to use the actual Jamieson and Smith yarns that the pattern recommends.

Spanish Knight sweater for Mom

Alas, it turns out that 100% alpaca is too scratchy for my mom. Also, I calculated that I don't have enough yardage in the forest green cashmere/cotton blend in my stash to finish this project (but see below for what I can use that lovely stuff for). Tonight Mom will get a chance to feel Elsebeth Lavold's silky wool.

Elizabeth I sweater for moi

As mentioned, doubling the forest green cashmere/cotton blend for my mom's Spanish Knight sweater will not give me enough yarn (I have to double it to get the right gauge). But it will be enough for this project (which also requires doubling). So, hooray! I've officially got a yarn! Unfortunately, I can't start this project because my 3mm straights are beingused in the cream Stornaway sweater. But as soon as they are free, I'm starting this, bay-bee!

Catherine Parr sweater for MIL

Got a little bit done. I will be focusing a lot on this one for a while, since it has to be completed for Christmas!

Stornaway sweater for BIL (cream)

Got a lot done. Not only did I start and finish the neck shaping on the front, but I'm almost done the back! Just a few more hours of work there and then I can do my first ever shoulder straps. At least, I think the pattern calls for shoulder straps. It better call for shoulder straps!

Stornaway sweater for BIL (blue)

No progress. Amazingly, I resisted. I swear, the alpaca is calling to me. Augh! It is my cherished hope that I will finish the other two Christmas sweaters well in advance of the Big Day so that I can try to get this one in time for Christmas, too.

Book of Kells step pattern bib for DH's cousin's baby

DONE!!! Now I just gotta send it off to them! Happy dance!

NEW - Mittens for DD

Well, it's getting colder as we head into winter (funny, that), and DD had no mittens to keep her sweet little hands warm. So I took an old Patons Beehive scratch mittens pattern, substituted thicker yarn and bigger needles, and knit them up longer to accommodate toddler-sized hands. A quick fix!

The other great thing I did on my knitting vacation was to organize my knitting cabinet. It is all bee-yew-tifully organized now, with projects in individual clear plastic bags. It is a thing of beauty. Happy me.

Hi. I'm Kathleen.

I knit.

I do many other things in my life, but knitting is a biggie.

I learned to knit at around age seven or eight. I had a horrendously sexist "How to Be Mother's Helper" sort of book when I was little, which had instructions on how to knit. My parents, who both learned to knit during WWII, helped me where the book did not. But with the exception of a few projects while growing up, I mostly stopped knitting until I got out of university.

Then, for some reason, I decided I wanted to knit a baby gift for a pregnant co-worker. My mom gave me a very sweet pattern for some booties. A year or two later, a good friend was expecting her first baby, so I did up the same booties for her. I then realised I wanted to keep knitting baby gifts for people, but I didn't want to keep making the same booties every time! My sister-in-law was kind enough to give me a wonderful compilation of her favourite patterns for Christmas, and suddenly I couldn't get enough.

It's been about six years since I started knitting on a really regular basis. My interests have now expanded far beyond the baby-stuff-in-acrylic. This is partly my fault (my obsessive nature, doncha know), and partly Alice Starmore's fault (saw her Tudor Roses book at a LYS and that was it for me). I've learned new techniques, discovered nifty knitting tools, experimented with different fibres and designed my own stuff. I'm now at the point where I have an entire cabinet in our workroom devoted to knitting equipment, materials and resources; the worktable is permanently occupied by my ball winder and swift; and there is a spot in the living room devoted to my high-priority projects which get done during television-watching marathons. It is rare that I will have fewer than 15 projects going at any one given time - impending babies and Christmas are usually responsible for this volume. Also, I am constantly being inspired with new project ideas which my fingers itch to begin immediately, no waiting.

Most of my projects are made for other people, which is actually good - it means I can take money out of our gifts budget to buy yarn, which is highly preferable to using my own fun money for the purpose! But I do occasionally work on stuff for myself. However, I must admit that all the projects I've ever started for me remain unfinished. Oh, well.

At the moment, my knitting thoughts mainly revolve around designing, increasing my speed, and discovering natural fibres:

• Currently I'm working on creating a book's worth of baby patterns. I have grandiose dreams of seeing it published one day.
• I think I've reached the limits of what I can do, speed-wise, given the way I currently knit. One of these days I will sit down and practice Continental until it sinks in. With that under my belt, I'm sure my speed can pick up.
• My latest natural fibre discovery is alpaca. Oh...my...GAWD. I just bought my first batch of it. A 2.2lb cone of steel blue, 100% alpaca, off of eBay. It's sooo soft. It feels sooo good when I work with it. Yum.

With a house to do my part to keep, a marriage to nurture and a 17-month-old daughter to enjoy, it is a wonder that I am able to accomplish as much knitting as I do. The key is that I have one helluva long commute to and from work every weekday. It takes about 90 minutes from home to work in the morning, and about 80 from work to home at night. So all that, combined with some knitting time during my lunch hour, gives me around three hours to knit every weekday without worrying that I should be doing something else. Of course, this doesn't always pan out. Often, DD is just so wonderfully distracting during the car ride part of my commute that not a lot of knitting gets done. And sometimes the subway is so busy that knitting is not really possible. But still, every day, a fair bit of knitting gets done. I also tend to flake out and knit in front of CSI most evenings (thank you, SpikeTV channel). But I'm still responsible, honest! During the ads I do chores!

The only downside to all that knitting-while-commuting is that I hardly ever get to read anymore, except for brief snatches when I'm in the bathroom. Yep, re-reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series is going to take a helluva while. Oh, well, it's worth it.

Anyway, here is my current project load:

WIPs

• Last of three double-faced baby bibs for DH's cousin's first baby. It's ALMOST DONE! I have just one row before the castoff row, then the ribbed neckline to do, tuck in the ends and it will be done and I can send it off. I love the designs and the bibs, but I am heartily sick of this project. I'm looking forward to moving on.
• Alice Starmore Catherine Parr sweater for MIL for Christmas. Soft green with black accents, 100% NZ wool from eBay. I'm going to have to redo the edging on the back with smaller needles to avoid the flaring at the bottom, and then will probably have to rip some of the top out and redo the neckline because the new edging will make the back longer than I want. Then I can continue with the front.
• Alice Starmore Stornaway sweater for BIL #2 for Christmas. Cream, 100% NZ wool from eBay. I'm about 2 inches from being able to start the neck shaping at the front. I'm still desperately worried about whether this will end up too scratchy, but I'm also starting to wonder how the heck I'm going to block this thing. I might have to sucker DH into making me an impromptu woolly board.
• Alice Starmore Stornaway sweater for BIL #3 - probably for Christmas 2005. Steel blue, 100% alpaca yarn from eBay. I am LOVING this yarn. Really got going on the sweater this weekend and finished the bottom ribbing this morning in the car. Gosh I wish I could finish it in time for this Christmas, but this is unlikely. This is dangerous - this is a very tempting project and I can see myself putting off high-priority projects to work on it. I will have to be strong. Tough, because the yarn is so soft. Argh!
• Afghan for our bedroom using the Jade Starmore Persian Tiles pattern. Purple and cream Red Heart acrylic. I've done about 2.5 pattern sets by now - I think I worked out that I would need 7 pattern sets in total. This is my first steeking project. !!!
• White leggings as part of a gift for a cousin expecting #1 any day now. See "Finished But Not Given Yet" for the other half of the gift. I may not get this done in time.
• Red stockings based on ones worn by Eleanor of Toledo in the 16th century. 100% silk from eBay. Done in the round on DPNs. Very annoying - they keep jabbing me, I haven't gotten the hang of using DPNs, really. I'm also a bit frustrated because the first few rows are much looser than the rest of it - I may frog and restart AGAIN (I had already done a fair bit in red cotton and then decided to be more accurate and go with silk).
• Jade Starmore Persian Tiles shawl for my grandma. Cotton/silk/cashmere blend from Knit Knack Yarns on eBay. Unfortunately the yarn is a heather, so I'm unplying the whole thing and replying it so that I separate out the two colours. This may never get done. Stay tuned.
• Alice Starmore Elizabeth of York vest. Wine red wool from Knit Knack Yarns on eBay. This is a project that I return to every once in a while when I am low on high-priority projects. But I've gotten a lot done so far.
• Elsebeth Lavold Ljod cardigan for me. Elsebeth Lavold's silky wool in teal green, OMG it's fantastic. Again, a low priority project that will take a long time to complete. But DH is really hoping to see me in it soon, and MIL bought me some awesome pewter-looking buttons to use, so maybe I'll prioritize this after Christmas?
• Alice Starmore Henry VII sweater for DH. Purple 100% acrylic Red Heart yarn. Who knows when it'll get done, but he'll look great in it.
• Alice Starmore Catherine Howard cardigan for me. Wool/rayon blend from eBay in mostly blue, with silver and gold accents. I'm not holding my breath waiting for the time to complete this one! But it'll look fantastic when it's done.
• Preemie burial gown. 100% acrylic in white. Almost done, just gotta sew it up.
• Several soakers. Who knows when I'll get around to finishing these. Probably not until after DD is potty trained!
• Pounder romper. Probably will get frogged.
• Cushion covers for living room. Need to get red worsted yarn to match the red in the existing cushion.

Concretely Planned

• United Way charity baby sweater. I am donating a promise for a custom-order baby sweater to the United Way auction we're holding at work. As the auction will not be until December I have no idea what I'll be making, but I'll definitely be making something - starting AFTER Christmas.
• Something for a co-worker who's expecting #2 in February. I'm waiting to find out what the ultrasound told them about the sex of the baby - another of my co-workers is making discreet inquiries. :) If it's a girl I have a vague idea for a fancy-cable and textured dress that I'd like to hash out.
• Something for my godmother's youngest daughter, whose partner is expecting their #2 in February. I will have to do a think on this. I suspect that I will take advantage of the project to design another Book of Kells themed something for my book.

Vaguely Planned

• Anne Feitelson slipover for my grandpa. It would look sooooo good on him. Don't know when I'll have the time or money, though. Figuring out what yarn to buy so that the colours all work out is going to be tricky - there are lots of colours and they're all really similar.
• Alice Starmore Stornaway sweater for DH for Christmas 2005. I want it in some kind of cashmere blend, forest green.
• Jade Starmore Spanish Knight sweater for my mom for Christmas 2005. It will have to be in some yarn that doesn't make her itch. Right now I'm letting her sample different yarns to see what works. Tonight she'll get a chance to feel 100% alpaca. I hope that works because there's an alpaca seller on eBay that sells a really nice purple that will work great. Fingers crossed.
• Alice Starmore Elizabeth I sweater for me. I'm not sure what I want to do it in - but I've got a gorgeous forest green cashmere/cotton blend from Knit Knack Yarns on eBay that I could probably double up to make it.
• Alice Starmore Cape Cod sweater for MIL for Christmas 2005. Gotta go looking for the yarn - maybe I'll be able to find lavender!
• Jade Starmore Kimberley cardigan for me. Not in the near future!

Finished But Not Given Yet

• Hrogn romper. One day I will see Skal and give it to her!
• Double-faced baby bib with key pattern.
• Double-faced baby bib with spiral pattern.
• Hooded jacket for a cousin expecting #1 any day now. It's made out of 100% acrylic, mint green on the body, and the sleeves and hood variegated mint and canary, with white picot-edged borders. I'm still struggling with whether I'm going to finish off the matching leggings in white, or if my time crunch is so bad for Christmas that the hooded jacket will be the whole gift. Stay tuned.

I also have an extensive (but not complete, unfortunately) list of past projects which I will make available at some point.

So! With all the basics out of the way, now I can actually get to the "log" part of blogging...

I made a decision today to take the alpaca Stornaway sweater to work instead of the last of the double-faced bibs. I had lots of good reasons, honest! Firstly - I only have one more row to do on the bib before the cast-off row, which involves separating out the two sides and then grafting, which isn't something I relish doing on the subway. And then there's the fact that I'm going to my parents' for dinner tonight, and if I have the alpaca with me, my mom can tell me if it's too itchy for her. So there. Logical reasons to be selfish. :) Rrrowr, but I love working with this alpaca!

I have two vacation days scheduled for this week - Wednesday and Friday. Combined with the weekend, plus the fact that I get Thursday off for Remembrance Day, this gives me five straight days off from work. Yay! DD will still be going to daycare on my days off, so I will be spending Wednesday through Friday napping and knitting, knitting and napping. I'm sooo looking forward to it!