I'm feeling a bit better about my knitting today. I'm still slogging through the same old stuff, but at least with one project I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel of boring parts. However, I remain annoyed about the lack of knitting-related mail arriving at my house. Last night we got only one envelope, and it wasn't even for us. Sigh.

Catherine Parr sweater for MIL

I'm less than four rows away from finishing the redo of the back border. This is terrific - I think I'm picking up some pace here. Soon I'll be able to graft it to the back, and then it's just a matter of ripping out a few rows at the top of the back and redoing the shoulder shaping so that the back is the same length as the front. Then it's onto the sleeves! Wow, you know I must be bored with knitting when I'm getting excited about starting sleeves.

Stornaway sweater for BIL (cream)

I probably shouldn't even be making a journal entry for this project today, given how little of the ribbing I did last night!

December?!? December?!? When did this happen! Augh! Moreover, it is snowing today. This sucks.

Catherine Parr sweater for MIL

I'm over halfway done the redo of the back border. Woo. Hoo.

Stornaway sweater for BIL (cream)

I've discovered that 4.5" is a hell of a lot of ribbing. Sigh.

If you can't already tell, I'm a little down about my knitting lately. My two high-priority projects are both big ones, and are both at points where I'm not finding the knitting too interesting. I know the thing to do is forge ahead so I can get past the boring bits, but what with the recuperation from the cold and the tiredness and the weather getting colder and the days getting really short...well, I'm not so fired up these days. Plus I keep checking the mail on the way home and my copy of Sweaters for Men keeps not being in the mailbox! Oh, well - this is just a mini-slump. I'll get over it.

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.

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.