Stress

I don't talk about my day job very much here, partly because it has nothing to do with my knitting (aside from when co-workers are expecting and need knitted baby things), and partly because it's just good sense not to give tons of details about what's going on in the office. However, recently my job did start affecting this blog because my workload - thanks to the poor planning of others - became abso-friggin'-lutely HYUUUGE. Generally I am very good about being sanguine about office stress and leaving it at the office, but around late January/early February, things became truly ridiculous and the stress started to follow me home. Consequently, there wasn't a whole lot of blogging going on.

However, this is not to say that there wasn't any knitting going on. In fact, there was rather a lot of that, which was great, since it brought balance and sanity to a brain that kind of needed those things. :) I just didn't feel up to talking about it all.

But now that the crises (yeah, plural) have passed, things are exponentially better and I've finally gotten around to taking pictures. I can't show you everything, because some of what I've been working on needs to stay secret for the moment, but here's how the knitting is coming along.

Undergrowth for Jenn

When last we looked at this, I had emailed my friend to ask her if she liked the way the colours looked, and I was waiting for the verdict. Well, she emailed me directly and commented on the blog, and the result was a resounding "hell, yes", :) so I got started. I've since gotten a little sidetracked by other stuff (see below), so I'm not quite finished yet, but I have started the decreases and I'm pretty pleased with how it's going:



Although, in typical 'me' fashion, after having spent so much time upsizing it, I'm now worried that it's too big. But I'm going to try to have faith in the measurements I took of the hat liner that's supposed to go underneath this thing and ignore my nagging doubts.

Balaclava for moi

I don't think I made any more progress on this since my last blog entry, but at least I now have a picture:

Gryffindor Tie for DD1

In further preparation for the Harry Potter-themed birthday party coming up in late March for one of DD1's classmates, I found the perfect self-striping yarn, and a really good-looking tie pattern: Men's Bias-Knit Tie, from KnitPicks. I'm making it smaller than the pattern calls for because DD1 is of course not a full-size adult male. :) I don't know how well that'll work out, but I guess we'll see! I haven't gotten too far yet, though:

Secret thing

And then, in the middle of all this, I got an idea for a design that I just had to chart...and try out...and buy yarn to make the prototype for...and start the prototype...and...and...my goodness, I'm terrible at delayed knitting gratification! I want to submit this to a publication, so I'm not going to say much more, but I'm very optimistic about how it's going to turn out.

Semi-secret thing

So last weekend I headed out to my LYS to buy the yarn for the secret thing, and I took DD2 with me. June, the owner, hadn't seen her for a while and was delighted with how much she'd grown and, I think, her generally charming ways. :) She asked my kid what her favourite colour was (purple), and next thing I know, the child is carrying around three balls of purple "gift yarn" and June is suggesting that Mummy could make something for her out of it.

Okay, then!

I figured, since June was nice enough to give me yarn, that the least I could do was design a pattern she could sell (if she wanted to) in her shop. So I made something up. When I'm done, I'll print out some copies for the LYS, and will also make it available for online purchase here. I'm not going to give too much of it away just yet, but I can tell you that...



...parts of it look like a Muppet made the ultimate sacrifice so my child could have a new garment. ;)