Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Yay finished objects!



Finally, finally finished something that worked out. Jill's fingerless mittens are done done done. And I gave them to her and that's her hands modeling them in the picture. Because they are done.

There's an awful lot of relief connected to finishing something that I'm proud of. It's been a little while since that happened. Over a month, actually, since I finished Eric's giraffe. So, yay.

I still have my mom's blanket on the needles. Theoretically it'll get finished by Christmas. Theoretically.

Next up, I'm starting on a yoga bag for my co-worker and old supervisor. She was also my yoga instructor at the work yoga sessions, and I know she'd love a knitted yoga bag. Or at least, that's what I'm telling myself.

Took a long weekend trip to Gatlinburg this past weekend. My poor friends, all of them guys, made the mistake of telling me that there was a yarn shop nearby. They got dragged into the shop for about an hour, but they were great sports about it. It didn't hurt that the woman who owned the shop was married to the guy who owned the fishing shop (the fishing shop and the yarn shop were connected), so they talked with her about fishing and hiking while I perused the yarn. I had been on a yarn diet, but that went out the window. I came away with a hank of Schaeffer yarn that I think will end up a Swallowtail Shawl, and some pretty Ditto yarn that will probably be a scarf. Also grabbed the issue of Interweave Knits that has the Swallowtail pattern, and a set of Crystal Palace Bamboo circulars to make the Swallowtail. Huh. I'm pretty set on making that shawl, apparently.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Bad like a really really bad thing

So, I cast off the summery tank last night.

It's awful.

Maybe not awful. But it's not good. The vision in my head was good. I think I copped out on a few things, got a little lazy, etc., and now it's not of the good.

So I folded it up, stuck it in it's plastic baggy, and threw it somewhere in my house. I can't be bothered with you right now, tank. It's not me, it's you. Okay, it's really me.

Instead of making the modifications that I was going to on summery tank, I switched to working on the fingerless mittens for Jill. This time I had a pattern to work with, albeit a modified version. I'm using Knitty's Dashing, but modifying them to fit a tiny woman with chopstick-thin wristbones. First attempt, fail. Second attempt, fail. Finally I just said "Forget you!" and put those needles and yarn back in their baggy. They haven't pissed me off enough yet to get thrown.

I spent the rest of the evening plotting out how I was going to fix these things and make them work. Ribbing is stretchy. That's what I tell myself. So it doesn't matter if I only cast on 32 stitches. See above, re: chopsticks for wristbones.

This evening is crafty time with my friend Betsy, and I'm bringing my mom's blanket to the party. It's already started. It's quite simple. Stockinette, then reverse stockinette. I think I can handle that.

I'd better be able to handle that, or knitting and I will be on a break. Pooh.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

So... close...

I'm very close to finally being done with this tank top thing I'm working on. (note to self: come up with better name) I would be done except I decided I wanted the top part to be a little bit longer, and so to add about an inch to this damned thing, I have to go buy an entirely new skein of yarn. Thankfully, it's relatively cheap yarn, and easy to match, so I'm not worried about that. I just want to get this thing finished!

My self-imposed deadline is Sunday. I want to be able to wear it to my friends' birthday party. Of course, I still have to figure out if I actually like it. I've been too lazy to take it off the needles to try it on. But mostly, I just want to finish it and have that sense of accomplishment of making something for myself before I go into birthday and holiday gift overdrive.