Responsible planning

I've been making reference for a while now to 'The Schedule'. The name itself is pretty self-explanatory, but a bit of detail is probably in order. I am aware that this will reveal the true anality of my obsessive nature, but what the heck.

It occurred to me some months ago that I had a ridiculous number of knitting projects that I really wanted to finish by the end of the year, but no real idea of how I was going to accomplish this impossibility. Impossibility, you say? I had until the end of December, how hard could it have been? Well, I shall show you. At the time the schedule was drawn up (mid-2005), I had the following ambitions:

• to finish a baby sweater by the morning of June 16
• to finish a pair of socks by Father's Day
• to finish a baby blanket by July 1
• to finish a baby jacket by November
• to design and knit a lacy baby shawl by November
• to design and knit another baby project by November
• to finish 3 adult sweaters by Christmas
• to knit a pair of socks by Christmas (why did I increase my stress by adding Christmas projects? Well...because. Besides, DH really likes hand-knitted socks, and I didn't want his feet to hurt.)
• to knit a child's cardigan for my niece by Christmas
• to finish my Harlot Poncho
• to finish my Elizabeth of York vest

My thoughts at the time can be summed up with the following phrase: No. Freaking. Way.

However, inspired greatly by Yarn Harlot's story of Lene's magic schedule, I thought, let's break this sucker down and see if we can really do it.

And so The Schedule was born.

The Schedule had me completing the shoulder straps and the first sleeve of the baby sweater and the foot of the second Father's Day sock by the end of the first full week in June. This turned out to be a little hairy, but manageable. That left the second week of June to finish both the sweater and the sock. I stayed up until 1am the night of the 15th and had to knit the sock sitting behind my husband (the recipient) in the car, but it all got done and The Schedule triumphed. The third week in June was a delicious breath of fresh air because it allowed me to turn my attention to two different projects. (The Schedule knows me well.) I was supposed to finish both fronts of the baby jacket (no problem whatsoever) and to knit all the pieces of the blanket and sew them together (a bit challenging, but I managed it by Sunday night). The next week I had to complete the blanket (I worked somewhat frantically on that) and to finish both sleeves of the jacket (done over a week ahead of time). The week after that I was to finish the jacket and get back to knitting my MIL's Christmas sweater.

And so-on, blahblahblah.

The Schedule did its job fairly well. It allowed me to see my knitting deadlines more realistically - thanks to The Schedule, I was able to let go of my desire to do a third adult Christmas sweater because I realised it would be impossible. The Schedule also enabled me to be more responsible about which projects I worked on first, while at the same time ensuring that I had an entertaining variety of stuff to work on.

The Schedule also had to be adjusted a few times, usually thanks to pregnancy announcements from people who saw fit to inform me of their impending parenthood only during the third trimester. When this happened, some projects (sorry, Harlot Poncho and Elizabeth of York vest) unfortunately had to be cut. However, because I had The Schedule, I could insert new projects with some level of confidence that it could all get done in time.

There were, admittedly, times when The Schedule fell down and I missed weekly quotas - my fault, I admit, either because I slacked off, or because I'd hugely overestimated the amount I could accomplish on something in a week, or because I just plain old screwed up on my knitting and wasted gobs of time fixing stupid errors. Sadly, at this point, just half a week away from the end of the calendar year, I am a few weeks behind.

But generally speaking, the system is going pretty well. So well that I have applied it to my knitting ambitions for 2006. Here is what I hope to accomplish in the coming year (assuming I finish all of this year's projects by Saturday, hahaha):

• competence in continental knitting (ASAP)
• my grandmother's Persian Tiles shawl (January 14 - her birthday)
• onesie for my co-worker's upcoming baby (January 17 - his wife's due date)
• 'Minnesota Mitts' gloves for DH (February 17 - our anniversary)
• self-patterning socks for DH (June 5 - his birthday)
• dress socks for DH (June 18 - Father's Day)
• my felted heraldic tabard (sometime in the first half of the year)
• my Elizabeth of York vest (sometime in the first half of the year so I can know for sure whether there will be enough yarn leftover for my brother's Christmas present)
• something for my MIL, possibly a shawl (December 24 - Christmas)
• Stornaway sweater for DH (December 24 - Christmas)
• Ragna sweater for my brother (December 25 - Christmas)
• Spanish Knight sweater for my mom (December 25 - Christmas)
• my Harlot Poncho
• my striped socks
• six new baby items throughout the year, designed by me for my book
• my Ljod cardigan
• man-size adult cabled sweater for which I've been mulling over a design idea for some time
• self-designed baby blanket
• my self-patterned socks
• my sleep socks

Riiiiiight.

(But notice my incredible self-restraint - I have not included my gorgeous Lotus Blossom Shawl project on this list, even though I really, really don't know how long I can wait to start it.)

I've gone through this list and the year week-by-week, and have come to the conclusion that, at my current knitting speed, I would need two and a half (maybe three) more months in the year in order to make it. I also have to admit that my calculations are based on doing the same insane amount of knitting that I am doing now, which unfortunately is pushing other important things out of my life, like playing with my daughter in the car during my commute; doing my full share of the household chores; and organizing my house so that my family's life is less crazy and so that we can entertain people more often. Plus, there's the fact that DH and I are hoping to start baby #2 this year, which, if baby #1 was any indication, will completely wipe out my energy for the first trimester and thereby destroy about three months of good knitting time. So. It is extremely likely that The Schedule will be hacked and slashed considerably, and that some great projects will get booted out of the lineup. (Pout. Sob.)

(Of course, what I'm really hoping for is that I get so good this year at continental knitting that my knitting speed increases to the point where I can accomplish the entire 2006 list in half the time. Actually, screw it, what I'm really, really hoping for is a big lottery win. Then I could gain more knitting time by quitting my job and hiring someone else to do the housework.)

So....will The Schedule prevail? How much can I accomplish? Only time will tell. Stay tuned for the not-so-exciting saga as the story unfolds very slowly in real-time...

(Good lord, I think I've just invented another reality show...)

Persian Tiles shawl for Grandma

Last night I did the math. I had completed 93 rows of the shawl. This meant there were 375 rows left to complete. Plus steeking, sewing, blocking and fringing. Not including yesterday or the day of the party, I had 17 days to accomplish everything. Subtract two days for steeking, sewing, blocking and fringing, and that left 15 days to do 375 rows. That's 25 rows per day.

Aieeee.

So, today's quota is to complete 118 rows. As of now, I have completed 102 rows.

Screwed, screwed, screwed.

The best gift ever

Behold.

(in reality, the colour is more blood-red, but this is the best representation I can get without sacrificing too much detail of the pattern)

This is going to be a scarf. For me. Made by my husband. I am gob freakin' smacked.

Let's review, shall we?

• Aside from a small practice piece, this is only the man's second project. (Okay, technically his second project is a golf club cover, but since that's only just started and his first piece was also a golf club cover, I think I can safely say that the second golf club cover doesn't really count.)
  
  
• This involves cables.
  
  
• He made up the pattern himself. Yes, you read that right. Made. It. Up.
  
  
• This project has apparently caused him enough anguish to totally induct him into the universal circle of knitters. He told me that he had to cast on four times. He has frogged and knit and frogged and knit countless times - including once where he thought he made a horrible error, frogged it all back, re-did it, realised it had been right the first time, and frogged it again. And yet he continues to work on it.

Despite all this, he is still beating himself up over it. The list of problems is apparently endless:

• It wasn't finished in time for Christmas.
• It's only made out of acrylic.
• He screwed up countless times.
• Despite all the frogging, there are still errors.
• The tension isn't even.
• He's horribly slow at knitting.
• He isn't sure it will look nice when it's finished.
• It's not a very intricate pattern.
• Etc. etc. etc....

Dear reader, do me a favour, will ya? This is very possibly the best present I have ever received - it completely blew me away - and I'm sick of hearing him moan about what a piece of crap it is. Leave a comment telling him why he should shut up and be spectacularly proud of himself already? Thanks. :)

Persian Tiles shawl for Grandma

This is moving along fairly well. Unfortunately, I calculated that I need to accomplish about 20 rows a day between now and my grandma's birthday in order to finish...and that doesn't even take into account fringing and blocking. I may be totally screwed. However, as of this moment, I am on track. Yesterday's quota has been met and I'm working on today's.

Self-patterning socks for moi

It's amazing how fast sock #1 is growing considering that I'm putting so much effort into my grandma's shawl:


And I am loving. It. Ordinarily I would think that being entertained by patterned yarn bodes dire things for the sophistication of my intellect, but I know that I am not alone.

Self-patterning socks for DH

I think I've decided that I'm going to use my new navy/blue Fortissima Colori Socka Yarn for socks for DH. Shhhh. Don't tell him.

PS - rachel, thank you so much for your compliments on the Christmas sweaters! And thank you also for enabling my sock needs. At least someone around here is on my side! ;)

A very knitted Christmas

At the moment, we still have not had the gift exchange with my parents and brother. So it is possible that there may be more knitting-related gifts coming for me. However, so far, this has been the haul, thanks entirely to my incredibly generous MIL who might be single-handedly keeping the Yarn & Crafts shop in business:

This photograph displays the following items:

• a really cool basket
• a kit to make the fantastic Lotus Blossom Shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting
• a kit to make, for DD, the Twizzle Cardigan from sweaterkits.com
• two Elsebeth Lavold books: The Sophisticated Lady Collection and The Mellow Tone Collection
• Fortissima Colori Socka Color yarn, enough to make two pairs of socks - one in the 'tropical' colourway, the other in the 'navy/blue' colourway

Be still my heart.

You may notice that there is a strand of yarn coming out of the basket and running down to the floor. It is leading to this...

Self-patterning socks for moi

I have no shame.

Persian Tiles shawl for Grandma

This is the project I worked on over the weekend, and it's coming along really nicely:


To be completely honest, it's what I should be working on instead of my new socks, but, well...oh, come on, I've never had self-patterning sock yarn before. Cut me some slack.

My husband, however, is not buying this argument. "Don't you have a shawl to do?" he asked. "A shawl that you were panicking about because you didn't know how you'd have it ready for January 14th for your grandmother's birthday?" I stared at him menacingly. "All I'm saying," he continued unwisely, "is that every stitch you do on that sock means..."

I cut him off. I don't need a spouse who's not into enabling me. Humph.

Christmas socks for DH

These were a big success. He was super-happy as he pulled the socks out of the gift bag, and then...

"Heyyyyy!!!" he said, as it dawned on him that I had been deceiving him about the socks lo these many months.

I pointed and yelled, "Ha!" Triumphantly.

Today we went through a few more details of how I had deceived him without ever actually lying. For instance, when I said that I was going to work on socks one day and then made an offhand remark about how I really want to make some socks for myself. I told him it wasn't my fault if he chose to assume that this meant the socks I was going to knit would be for me. Then he accused me of deliberately trying to mislead him.

"Well, yeah," I replied. :)

Then he said I was good enough at this to be Aes Sedai (yes, we're both geeks) and I thanked him. I think he went away muttering. :)

He's definitely happy about the socks. About the fact that I still have never finished anything for myself...not so happy. Which is why he's letting me get away with starting up the self-patterning socks for myself without too much complaint about all my other knitting deadlines.

Stornaway sweater for BIL

He loves it.

He commented on how smooth it feels, how gorgeous it is, and how the hang tag just tops it right off. He's thinking of keeping it on for the 'bling' factor. :)

Cape Cod sweater for MIL

This was finished on the commute home on Friday afernoon. I also fixed the laddering problem on the left cuff:

It's not perfect, but it's scads better.

I recently discovered (and you may or may not be able to tell from the above photo) that the 'laddering' problems I'm having whenever I do in-the-round knitting with the Magic Loop technique or double-pointed needles are actually due to the fact that I pull too tightly in an effort to avoid laddering (oh, the irony). So I've started being more relaxed about how I start off the stitches on a new needle, and am noticing a big difference. Sadly, I didn't make this discovery in time to knit the Cape Cod sleeves perfectly, but the number of people who will notice are extremely few.

So...here are the shots of the completed sweater:


front


back


detail of sleeve


me modelling the sweater, seen from the front


me modelling the sweater, seen from the back


me modelling the sweater, seen from the side to show off the underarm gusset

Upshot: my MIL loves it. Really, really loves it. You know when someone says, "Oh, Kathleen!!!" several times that it's a hit.

Yay!

Making a list and checking it twice

Things that must be done:

• Work today.
• Pick up family photographs from photo studio, stuff them into all the envelopes with the New Year's cards, put stamps on all the envelopes and get the cards to the post office before the last mail pickup at 5pm.
• Get DH and DD to sign all the Christmas cards for the close family we'll be visiting over the holidays, then stuff the cards with the appropriate photos and seal them up.
• Dinner tonight with my parents (my cousin from Calgary is visiting and it's the only chance to see him - really looking forward to it - since he's spending Christmas with his dad, not my aunt).
• Call my aunt about Christmas dinner - she apparently told my mom she didn't want DD sleeping at her place, which I suspect is a result of her wanting my munchkin to stay up late to spend more time with the family rather than some bizarre refusal to let my kid bunk down in her own playpen in one of my aunt's guest rooms. This matter will need to be cleared up.
• Find a photo frame for the 8x10 family shot (hopefully we've got one kicking around the house so I don't have to go shopping and be hampered by The Masses) and wrap it as DD's gift to my MIL.
• Plan and pack for all the Christmas visiting we're going to do (for those who don't have kids and don't quite understand what 'planning' there is to be done, TRUST ME...when you have kids, getting out of the house with everything you're going to need takes planning worthy of a precise military operation).
• Finish up my MIL's Christmas sweater and wrap it.
• Get some sleep (I'd really like to kick this headache that's been hanging around since the beginning of the week).
• Do lots of laundry.
• Enjoy Christmas.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Christmas sweater for MIL

The knitting component of the sweater is finished (11pm last night). Yes, there was enough yarn. This is how much I had leftover, smiley face mug has been included for scale:

Tons. I'm not even sure why I was worried. But I'm pretty annoyed with myself about it because when I accepted the idea that I might be making a short-sleeved sweater, I started slacking off on The Schedule, which is why there has been some frantic catch-up knitting over the past several days.

I am now working on weaving in a whole bunch of @#($*&@&!!! ends:

This is the sweater inside-out. I was trying to demonstrate the multitude of ends for you, but the picture quality doesn't really capture the hopelessness of it all. Trust me, there are a lot.

Ends aside, I think the sweater looks good enough that I don't really have to block it, which is good, because I'm not sure at this point that it would dry in time. However, I might do the damp towel thing.

Two days ago when I finished the first sleeve, I tried the sweater on just to see how it looked on a human being.
IT. IS. AWESOME.

This may be the most incredible thing I have ever knitted. I love the sweater. I adore it. It's completely the wrong colour for me and a little big, yet I have still had a few moments of weakness where I contemplated braving The Masses and going to a mall to get a last-minute gift for MIL just so I could keep the sweater all for myself. And that was just with one completed sleeve. Last night I tried it on again when the knitting was done and loved it even more. When the ends are all woven in I will take pictures, and I will get DH to take pictures with me in the sweater, and you will see what I am talking about. GORGEOUS. All hail the Starmore.

There is just one problem. On the left cuff, right at the top where it's really obvious and MIL will see it whenever she checks her watch, is some really nasty laddering that occurred because I was panicked and not being careful while knitting in the round - you can also see where, about three-quarters into it, I realised that I was screwing up and started doing it right. I could kick myself. In shame I offer the visual proof of my poor knitting:

Sorry, Fran. :(

Comments and panic

I've been pretty bad about responding to comments lately. So here's my attempt to remedy that:

Gillian confirmed my belief that our Girl Guides campsite at Doe Lake was Bella Coola and mentioned a bit of her own trauma from that bleak, cold week. :::Shudder::: Perhaps we should agree never to speak of it again. :)

Jen complimented the Fafner blanket - thank you! I also gravitate towards daunting-yet-beautiful projects, but this one is getting me down because it's taking way longer than I thought it would. Hope to see you at a January SnB!

Kelly likes my hang tags. Thanks! Sure I can bring some of them to an SnB! I'm toying with the idea of going next week - will you be there? (More to the point, will Lettuce even be open, or are the SnBs done until the new year?) I'm not sure I'll be able to print out any new ones before then, but I can bring some of the 'rejects' that didn't really work out but are still a great example of how well the design prints out on photo paper. (They 'didn't really work out' because, well, :::blush::: I screwed up - I tried to do a double-sided tag by glueing [gluing?] the front and back together and it failed miserably because the glue made the whole thing all ripply.)

And now, the panic component...

Cape Cod sweater for MIL

This project is now the be-all-and-end-all of my knitting life. I have to finish it by tomorrow night so that it can block and dry on Friday so that it will be ready to be wrapped and brought to my MIL's on Saturday. As of this morning, sleeve #2 looked like this:

and I had this much yarn left:

(spool of thread included as a size reference)

Right now I have about 160 rows left to go - 105 on sleeve #1 and about 55 on sleeve #2.

So! The two big questions are:

1. Do I have enough yarn to complete both sleeves?
2. Will I be able to finish the sweater in time?

The answer to each of these questions is: I have no freakin' idea.

This should be fun.

Be still my heart

Yesterday DD and I were in my room and she spied some of my knitting on the floor. (I have astonished myself in recent years by getting control over several of the rooms in our house, but sadly our bedroom is still a complete disaster area, so yeah, there's knitting on the floor...among other things.) She was going to bring it to me, but I said I didn't need it right now, so she left it alone. And then...

"Am I bigger?" she asked.

I had an inkling of what the deeper purpose behind this question was all about, but thought it was too much to hope for. So I just told her that she was certainly bigger than she used to be, and that she would get even bigger as she grew up.

She persisted. "Am I bigger?" she repeated.

So I decided to try out my theory. "You mean," I asked, "are you big enough yet to knit?"

The answering nods were very enthusiastic. "Well, do you want me to show you how to knit now?" I asked, with bated breath.

"Yeah!!!" she yelled. There may even have been some jumping up and down. I was too blown away to remember too clearly. :)

So I sat down with her and the knitting (which, as it happens, was my practice piece for the combination technique, so no great shakes if she messed around with it) and guided her hands through all the movements. She seemed to like it a lot, and bragged about what she was doing to DH, and even tried to do a stitch by herself (which didn't work at all but who cares, it's the motivation that counts). She lost interest pretty quickly, but clearly the drive is there. I'm delighted, and will happily guide her hands through the motions again any time she asks!

My munchkin is only two and a half. I have no illusions that she will be flying solo any time soon. But if I can nurture her enthusiasm and not let the difficulty of starting up discourage her, I think I might have myself a wee knitter pretty soon. I'm not holding my breath, though. The Yarn Harlot (whom I greatly admire) has frequently stated her belief that if a child can do something as difficult as reading, they can do something as easy as knitting. This is a very intriguing theory, but for myself, I disagree with it a tiny bit. I think that although the mind is ready to grasp knitting if a child can do something as tough as reading (which DD is almost doing...she has come very close a lot of times to sounding out a word all by herself), the manual dexterity ain't necessarily there. My theory tends to run more along the lines that if a child can tie a bow, they can probably knit. And DD is pretty far away from being able to tie a bow. But we shall see. I live in hope.

In other (albeit not nearly as exciting) news, I decided to try printing my hangtag design out on photo paper instead of regular cardstock. It worked like a dream:

You can't really see from this shot how great the print quality is, but trust me...it's awesome.

Also, we managed this weekend to get some photos taken of my BIL's Stornaway sweater modelled by DH:

front


back

This means I can now wrap this sucker and put it under the tree. Oh, and Aven, thank you very much for your compliments from the last time I posted some completed shots of this sweater. :)

I also got a completed shot of DH's Christmas socks:

So all in all, I'm pretty damn content with the world right now. Or at least I would be, if it were not for my WIPs...

Fafner blanket for baby Muth

27 pattern repeats to go. Yes, that's right. One lousy pattern repeat since last I posted. I suck.

Cape Cod sweater for MIL

I have reached the halfway point of sleeve #2, which means I am about 40 rows away from being finished, if I stay with the short-sleeved version. However, I'm now looking at the amount of yarn I used up in the first half of sleeve #2, and the amount of yarn I have left, and I'm wondering...maybe I have enough for full-length sleeves after all? If so, it would be both wonderful and terrible. Wonderful because...well, I'd be making the sweater I wanted to make in the first place. Terrible because...well, I'm kind of a week behind. I'd have to do two half-sleeves in one week in order to have the sweater done by the morning of the 24th (when we leave for my MIL's). So. All this *#$(*@&!!! planning and once again, I may be screwed.

I wish there were two of me

Much to my surprise, I had a blast at last night's office Christmas party. The food was great and plentiful, the bar was open, the co-workers were relaxed and fun (see 'the bar was open') and there was dancing. This (especially the dancing) is pretty much all I need to have a good time. My chief complaints were only that a) I shouldn't have had to pay $25, b) the DJ kind of sucked, and c) this morning, it is not Friday.

I got home very late (to the delightful news that DH had taught DD how to make snow angels) and got very little sleep, but am generally happy. (As I'm not really a drinker, when I have access to an open bar, for me this means unlimited juice. Tame and sad, yes, but this morning I am completely non-hungover as opposed to all my co-workers so really, there are advantages. Plus, there is nothing quite so fun as being totally sober and watching your co-workers get drunk around you. Try it sometime.)

But then today I got on the computer and started reading all the GTA knitting blogs raving about how great last night's holiday SnB party was at Lettuce Knit, and now I'm thinking...damn, if I only could have gone to that, too. I briefly contemplated leaving the office party for about three quarters of an hour to pop over to the SnB (the party was pretty close to the store), but I was having such fun that I thought, aw, screw it.

So really, the only solution would have been to clone myself. Or get a Time Turner.

Christmas socks for DH

DONE! I worked on these in the cab ride home last night, and again this morning, and again at lunch today, and they are completely finished. (Pictures forthcoming.)

Now I just have to hide them from DH. I don't know how much he suspects...I originally told him that the socks were for me, but I've been working on them a lot lately and I'm wondering if he's confused about why I'm working on something for me when there's still Christmas and due-any-second baby knitting to be done.

But I have some good non-lies worked out in case he asks me where they went. "Non-lies" = statements that are technically true but which are constructed in such a way as to completely mislead the person you tell them to, so that you can safeguard whatever surprise you are trying to spring on them. So, for example, if he asks me where the socks went, I will say, "They're hiding. I can't work on them anymore. I have to finish the Christmas knitting." Now, I know that the real truth of these statements breaks down as follows:

• They're hiding = They're hiding from my DH because they are his Christmas present
• I can't work on them anymore = They're done
• I have to finish the Christmas knitting = I have to finish the Christmas knitting (a totally true statement unrelated to the previous two statements - used as a red herring to throw DH off the scent)

But I shall say them in such a way which will make him think that they actually mean:

• They're hiding = I've hidden them from myself so that I will not be tempted by them
• I can't work on them anymore = I have bigger knitting priorities right now
• I have to finish the Christmas knitting = This is the bigger knitting priority, and is the reason why I have had to hide the socks from myself

You see how it goes? Non-lies...for those who wish to keep good surprises secret from loved ones. Obviously, a powerful tool that should only be used for good, and never for evil (for example, covering up an adulterous affair is a Very Bad And Totally Unacceptable use of the non-lie).

Cape Cod sweater for MIL

A tiny bit more has been done on sleeve #2. I'm finding it difficult to knit throughout my entire commute these days because the portion of the commute spent in the car with DH and DD now tends to be spent playing with DD. This is an extremely personally rewarding use of my time, but as Christmas knitting goes it's very stress-inducing.

Fafner blanket for baby Muth

I've decided to do a countdown. Hopefully this will make me feel better about things. 28 pattern repeats to go.

Launch, laugh, learn

The launch, as expected, was great.

The laughs of course came from the Yarn Harlot herself. She was - no surprise - hilarious. But a cute funny occurred before the speech, when I arrived at the museum at the same time as the Harlot Family. I, being a good little plebe, lined up at the front desk to check my bag and whatnot, but Stephanie & Co., naturally, began to go straight up the stairs. The desk lady noticed this and did not immediately recognize the Harlot out of her peripheral vision. Doing her job nicely, she stopped Stephanie and asked, "Are you here for the event?"

"I am the event!" Harlot replied cheerfully.

Laughter ensued.

Once I checked all my stuff, I went up and went hunting for familiar faces. I first found Laura and Dani, and from there was able to find myself a seat among several other Lettuce Knit SnB folk. We were eventually joined by Kelly and Jen, the latter of whom I had never met before but I sure hope she shows up at an SnB that I go to in the future because man, that lady is a time and a half, I tell ya.

(Sadly, that future SnB will not be tomorrow's big party with the cookie exchange because it's my office Christmas party that night. For which privilege, I might add, I have had to shell out $25. I am still bitter.)

The learning part came while watching Laura knit. I understood immediately how it is that she regularly turns out a sweater in about three days (or at least, it certainly seems that way). She knits in the continental style and is probably about twice as fast as I am. Think of that. Twice. As. Fast. I imagine all the projects I could do in a year if I could double my speed and I gasp at the very thought. I must learn how to knit by 'picking'. My practicing of the combination method has sadly gone in the pooper in the last few months, but I am re-motivated. Now, I was warned assured, both by Laura and the other Lettuce ladies there, that although the method is certainly very fast once you got the hang of it, the learning curve to get there is very steep. I care not - I am willing. I've even started the practice piece:

(Pretty even stitches for a beginner, eh?)

However, I'm going to wait until I finish all my frantic December/January panic knitting before I really get into it.

So. All in all, a great evening. I did try to get to the post-launch party, but unfortunately when we got to the restaurant (which shall remain nameless), it turns out they had no room for us. (Harlot's husband Joe had called ahead from the museum and mentioned the size of our party, and they had assured him there was space, but apparently in the time it took us to walk there - during which we made fun of the knitting schmatteh in various store window displays along the way - the space evaporated. Who knew.) By the time we got a table at another restaurant, it was time for me to begin my long trek back up to my place and I had to ditch the party. :( I was very tired, cold and sore-throated (my cold still hasn't quite released me) when I got home, but was very happy that I had gone.

Fafner blanket for baby Muth

Third corner is complete and I have begun the third edge.


This may sound like good news...it is not. I have looked at the remaining turquoise yarn and am once again cursing myself because I'm not sure if there will be enough to do the whole edging. (I have been too scared to weigh the thing to find out for sure.) I am a right royal idiot, is what it is. I should have done the cables in the turquoise and the background in the cream. Sigh.

Christmas socks for DH

I cast on for sock #2 yesterday morning and knit through my commute. The good news is that I got two inches more done on the sock than I expected to, and now I'm finished the heel and working on the foot!


The bad news is that this happened because of a spectacularly awful delay on the subway. Feh.

Cape Cod sweater for MIL

What with all the other projects I'm trying to get ahead on, progress on this has slowed a bit. However, it's still coming along:

In the wrong headspace

So after all that buildup, you'd think that the first blog post I made after the launch would be, you know, about the launch.

Sadly, no.

This is because I had my launch-describing post all written up, and...the computer ate it. I am too embarrassed to describe exactly how, but suffice it to say that I am not completely blameless for the loss. I am, however, still mad about it and am not yet in the right mental state to contemplate rewriting the damn thing. (Although the upshot of it was certainly that I had a great time.) Stay tuned.

On the plus side, I've taken more photos of my BIL's completed Stornaway sweater:


back


pattern detail


detail of how the shoulder strap extends into the sleeve

I have one more photo that I want to take (i.e. modelled by my husband) and then I can wrap the sweater and put it under the tree!

Fafner blanket for baby Muth

The second side is finished and I am turning the third corner. I may yet finish this in my lifetime.

Cape Cod sweater for MIL

My DH is entirely unhelpful. I revealed my yarn shortage concerns to him, and my solution for coping with it (making a short-sleeved sweater instead of a long-sleeved one), and asked whether he thought his mother would wear a short-sleeved sweater.

"Maybe," he replied, with just the right amount of pessimism and wishy-washy-ness in his tone to make me want to kill him.

On the plus side, the second sleeve is coming along nicely.

Persian Tiles shawl for Grandma

I brought this project to my mom's yesterday to show her how it was coming along, and managed to get another row or two done while I was there. She was impressed. I am still loving the project like crazy.

(Oh, and Kelly, thanks for the link to the Doe Lake website! I took a look at the campground map and am sure we were at the Bella Coola area, next to Little Eye. I distinctly remember that we all decided we hated the Little Eye campers like poison and changed around some of the lyrics to our cheer songs in order to insult them - for example, instead of ending off with "Bella Coola/Bella Coola/can't be beat!" we sang "Little Eye/Little Eye/have big feet!" Don't ask me why I remember such minute details. It's not like the week was an incredibly enjoyable experience for me...in fact, I don't think I was ever so cold, skeeter-bitten and miserable in my entire life. Perhaps my brain chooses to remember traumatic events from my past with crystal clarity instead of blocking them out? Further proof that I am just weird.)

Adapting to screwups

The Yarn Harlot dropped by and commented that she was thrilled I was coming to the book launch, which was a lovely thing to say. (She is not alone - in case you didn't notice from my last post, I am thrilled that I am coming to the book launch. Every time I think about it I get a little jolt of happy.)

She also mentioned that the book was released in September. This contradicted my recollection (which I mentioned in my previous post) that the book had been released in late March. And then the curtain of stupidity lifted from my brain and I realised that I was thinking of her first book. Clearly my mind cannot handle it when one author releases two books in the same calendar year. You may now mock me. Everybody together...

DUH.

(I agree that the world would make a whole lot more sense if Stephanie were in charge. Clearly, me being in charge would kill us all.)

I discovered, from reading Kelly's blog, that the new Knitty is out. I must admit, there isn't a lot there that jazzes me. Some of it is actually kind of un-jazzy, if you know what I mean. However, some of them are outright inspiring. Forecast and Tubey look interesting. My mom, reading over my shoulder, thought Bristow was particularly beautiful. I think Bobblicious is pretty cool.

But there are two which are crying out to be made.

NEW - Namaste bag for Aunt Jennifer

My Auntie Jenny (who now apparently prefers to be called 'Jennifer', but my thirty years of 'Jenny' conditioning ain't going away anytime soon, sorry) is a yoga teacher. Needless to say, when I encountered a beautiful knitting pattern for a yoga mat carrying case, she's the person I thought of. It sure as heck ain't going to be made this year...it might not even be made next year...but at some point, it will be hers.

NEW - Mrs. Beeton cuffs for moi

I think this idea is so freakin' cool, and the cuffs are so pretty. I envision myself making multiple pairs...and maybe even figuring out how to make matching collars. The idea of sprucing up my wardrobe with some soft, feminine bling just by doing a tiny bit of knitting is insanely appealing.

Cape Cod sweater for MIL

The niggling worry that I might run out of yarn is rapidly escalating into full-scale paranoia. This is why:

There really isn't that much left on the cone and I'm not even done the first sleeve. This was a unique yarn purchase and there is no way I can get more, ever. I think I'm screwed.

However, as I was moaning about this problem to a co-worker at lunch, it occurred to me that I could make a short-sleeved sweater instead of a long-sleeved one. After all, the yarn for this project is a cotton/linen blend...a short-sleeved wool sweater would make no sense whatsoever, but a short-sleeved cotton/linen sweater would work. And so, here is my plan. In about five rows, I will come to the end of the current texture stripe that I'm working on for the first sleeve. At that point, I will place the sleeve stitches on waste yarn, and begin the second sleeve. If I hit the same point of the second sleeve and have very little yarn left, I will cast off artfully on both sleeves and be done. However, if I hit the same point of the second sleeve and there's lots of yarn left, I will forge ahead on both sleeves (although not simultaneously, obviously) and try to do the full sweater.

This is a good plan. It is a smart plan. It is a workable plan. Except for one thing...

I can't remember ever seeing my MIL wear short sleeves. What if she hates short sleeves? What if I've wasted hours and hours of knitting and untangling labour making her something beautiful that she will never wear?

I could still be sooo screwed. Stay tuned...it could be entertaining. (If you're not me, that is.)

Fafner blanket for baby Muth

Snails move faster:

Hopped up on life

I am totally stoked. This Wednesday is the official launch of the Yarn Harlot's second book at the Textile Museum of Canada, and I am So. There. (DH and I have been trying to figure out how a book launch can happen more eight months after the release of the title, but I'm not complaining.) I was originally planning on getting out to Lettuce Knit for the SnB this Wednesday evening, but I'm sure, as was the case with first book, that the SnB will relocate this week so that everyone can go to the book launch. :) I'm anticipating an even nicer evening this time around, since I will know people there. The only question is, will I save myself $2 and walk to the museum from work, or will I be lazy and use public transit? I suspect the prospect of being able to go to an extra Lettuce SnB this year with the fare I will save will be the only thing that will motivate me to hoof it.

([Inigo Montoya accent]I hate walking.[/Inigo Montoya accent])

In other news...I went shopping this Saturday at Value Village (DD needed winter boots and new sneakers - I was completely prepared to buy boots new if I couldn't find anything used, but I totally lucked out and found some awesome boots at VV in exactly the right size, bright purple with pink stripes at the top...DD was in boot heaven and I was her #1 hero for the day.) I always check out the (pathetic) yarn selection whenever I go, and am always, always massively disappointed (I was so unbelievably jealous of Stephanie's huge score). However, lately I've also taken to scouring the men's sweater section to see if there's anything in there that's worthy of being cannibalized for wool. So far I've found some nice stuff, but nothing that really screamed 'take me home'.

Until now.

I found an Alfred Sung cardigan in a gorgeous shade of red...100% lambswool. It is soft, it is a great colour for me, it looks fairly easy to take apart. It was $7.99. I bought it. I took it home. I showed DH. His eyes lit up.

He wants the cardigan for himself.

Sigh.

Oh well, I'll just have to go back. Maybe next time I'll find something in cashmere...

Fafner blanket for baby Muth

This project is the bane of my existence. The ball and chain on my ankle. The monkey on my back. The Dementor at my Quidditch game. I swear, I keep knitting and knitting and knitting the edging on this damn thing, and...nothing. I only just finished the first side this weekend. It SUCKS. The Schedule is weeping - it has been thrown completely off by this one damn project, and there doesn't seem to be any hope of redemption. By this point I'm supposed to have finished this blanket, a fair isle hat and mitts, and gotten the second sock of DH's Christmas present started. But no...I'm still working on the damn edging. Sob.

Cape Cod sweater for MIL

Still going well. I think this will be the project I take to the book launch - an entire evening of working on it will probably up my odds of finishing the first sleeve by the end of this week like I'm supposed to.

Recovery

I am exhausted. As colds go, this last one was pretty mild, but I think the combination of DD and I being sick (read: cranky) at the same time really did us in. Her behaviour has been very off, I've had a frighteningly short fuse, she's been fussy at bedtimes and, consequently, I'm desperately underslept (read: taking longer than I should to shake the cold). It hasn't been pretty. Add that to the fact that I was really hoping to get to the Lettuce Knit SnB this week but was too sick to do so, and you have a very unhappy person.

But on the plus side for the fibre arts, whenever I was unable to nap because DD was being obstinant about sleep...I knitted.

Cape Cod sweater for MIL

Last week, as The Schedule said I should, I finished the front yoke, joined the shoulders, knitted the neck gussets (the patterned neck gussets, mind you - so freakin' cool), and completed the neck. Behold:

shoulder seam and neck gusset

neckline

Not only did it all turn out really well, but I finished it before the end of Sunday, and was able to start on sleeve #1 earlier than scheduled.

This morning I hit the halfway point of sleeve #1. (I thought I'd hit the halfway point last night, and crowed triumphantly to DH about this achievement, but upon a recount of the stitches this morning I discovered that unfortunately I had jumped the gun with my celebration.) Check it out:

completed (patterned) underarm gusset

sleeve #1 so far

It is only Friday and by lunchtime today I'd already finished The Schedule's dictates for this project for this week. It's going quite well. So well, in fact, that forgetting the pattern at home this morning didn't even slow me down...I had enough of it memorized that I was able to work on it during the commute. Once at work, I phoned DH and got him to dictate the pattern details I would need for the rest of the day until I got back home to my pattern again.

(As an aside, I must say that teaching one's spouse to knit makes this kind of thing sooo much easier. The dear man was able to comprehensively describe the chart instructions, and work through the myriad of abbreviations so that he could read the important bits to me quickly and clearly.)

As it all begins to really come together, I am constantly being struck by what a triumph of mathematical precision this pattern is. I love it.

Okay, I am starting to get a niggling worry about running out of yarn, but at this point I'm dismissing the feeling as rampant paranoia. There's still plenty left on the cone.

Persian Tiles shawl for Grandma

I ran out of patience while doing the swatch - I never made it through the entire test pattern. Gauge was more or less being achieved, so there was really no point in resisting the lure of the pattern anymore. (Rationalization: it's a shawl, so precision is not vital. Plus, I've washed this yarn before, and I'm pretty confident I can achieve the sizing specifications during blocking if I end up being a little off with the gauge.) Since I need all the yardage of the blue that I can eke out, I frogged the swatch and started the shawl.


at first glance, a curling pile of crap

forcibly unfurled, the beautiful reality

Loving.
It.

There is one problem: I did a more thorough skimming of the instructions, and realised that they do not, after all, call for using the secondary colour in the fringe. So it is possible that I could run out of the blue before I finish all 9.5 repeats of the pattern. (Crap.)

Unfortunately, there is no way that getting more yarn is an option if this happens. Firstly, I don't really have the money to buy more...although this is my grandmother we're talking about here, so I'm sure if push comes to shove, I could rationalize the overspending somehow. Secondly, there is no way I'd be lucky enough that the additional blue would be a similar enough dyelot to the original blue. And lastly, the target date for the completion of this project is January 14 (my grandma's birthday), which is terrifyingly close enough that by the time I (hypothetically) run out of blue, there is no way I'd be able to order more wool in time.

But I think I'm managing to be pretty positive about it all. There is, after all, no guarantee that I will actually run out of blue, it's just a possibility. The math says I have enough. (Stop laughing.) Secondly, I have two very legitimate options (other than weeping and cursing) if the worst does come to pass:

1. I will rely heavily on my grandmother's extremely small size to make the shawl useful as a shawl anyway, even though it will be a shorter length.
   or...
2. I will try to market the gift to my grandmother as a runner for a small table instead of a shawl.

See? No reason to panic. Just keep knitting, just keep knitting, just keep knitting and knitting and knitting...