Drive by

Just a quick post today. Not a whole lot to share. Been crazy busy, but with not much to show for it. The Charlies were here for less than 24 hours and I didn't pull out my camera once. Mom did though.
Fun with frosting at the birthday bash for Dad on Saturday. Then it was off to hockey for me. Sunday I did not get to work on the sleeves for the sweater. Instead I spent the whole day with the Daley clan for Kathleen's christening.
Seriously thought that Kaylee might manage to get into the font for a second.

And just because this is a knitting blog, I finished some socks (shocking!) on Thursday.
The Slant socks, that haven't been seen since like December probably. I love them - as I do with most of knit socks. Cast on for another pair, which hasn't been photo'd yet.

And that's about it. Told you I didn't have much. Have a great week!

Kinda Obsessed

So my Pampas Stole has kinda taken over my knitting time, make that my spare time. I can't seem to stop myself wanting to knit on it every minute I possibly can. Which means that I'm ignoring my other knitting. Which really isn't very nice at all. I need to spread the love a bit. So, last time you saw that time suck, there wasn't much to get excited about. This is where it was on Sunday (when I meant to blog but didn't):
Only through one repeat. But isn't it pretty? You're going to get sick of this thing before I do methinks. And this is where it is today:
Halfway through 5 repeats. So you know, the pattern calls for 19 repeats before the other edge bit. I really need to figure out a way to make the beading go faster. That's what's taking this so long to knit, 4 rows are beaded every other stitch for almost the entire length! That's a crazy amount of beading, and not just a bit tedious. But it really makes it pretty. (sorry for the darkish photos - it's sunny here today, but when I did the auto editing on the pics it washes out the color, and I wanted to show that it's mostly a pale green, rather than the white it looked like in the last post)

Enough of the gushing. Onto other lovelies. I never bothered to get in progress pictures of this Mara shawl, but it went so quickly that it was done before I could.
I made it smaller than most people did, using only 2 skeins of the very yummy Madelinetosh yarn, but I like it. The green is truer in the first photo - just the thing to chase away the January blahs. It's the first completion for the 10 Shawls in 2010 group I joined on Ravelry. I figured that it was better to embrace the urge to knit a bunch of small triangular shawls than fight it.

Speaking of small shawls, in a moment of weakness I cast on a Citron. I couldn't help myself, I wasn't in the mood for beading that night, and it was next on my list for the 10....
Whatever, I shouldn't have to defend myself. I can knit what I want when I want, and shouldn't feel guilty. Somehow I still do though. That's through the first 2 sections, which go quickly, but each section gets significantly more stitches, so it'll slow down. You know, if I ever knit on it instead of the Pampas.

The last neglected knit is my Ingenue. I did spend most of my knitting time on Sunday working on it, and tada!
I'm done with the body! So I just have to find the motivation to do the sleeves. Probably this weekend - probably not til Sunday, as the Charlie's are coming for a very short visit and I have hockey on Saturday night.

Finally, Tuesday night was the big 2 year anniversary bash for Stitch'n'Bitch. So instead of Borders we went out to dinner, and got very little knitting accomplished. I managed to remember to take my camera (and actually use it!) so here are some of my favorite people:
From left to right, Kelly, Paula and Meli.
From near to far, me, Maggie, Patti.
Left to right, Mae, Ginny, Stacy.
And Meagan and Rebecca. Not all of my favorite people, as I didn't get every one's photo, and not everyone was able to make it, so if you're not pictured, don't think I don't love you!

Just Keep Winding

The other night, the Knitting Fates had a good laugh at my expense. The kind of laugh that you remember and re-tell the story for years, to the embarrassment of the humiliated (kinda like annoying family stories). Why were they laughing?
That is what my 1000+ yds of lace weight handspun looked like after an hour winding it. Go ahead. Laugh. I didn't, but I managed not to cry either, or take scissors to it and chop it up into millions of fibery bits to be dumped in Lake Erie. Nope, I just kept winding, by hand. I wasn't going to risk breaking the yarn by using the ball winder. We all know how that works out for me.
Yeah, that's after another hour. Still funny isn't it? Have to say, I did not enjoy "Flying Down to Rio" which I watched while doing this. Very disappointing for Fred and Ginger. They only danced once.
Um, yeah, this puts us at three hours.
An episode of NCIS later. Very excited that it was getting big enough to cover my hand at that point.
And after an episode of "Cities of the Underworld", at which point I stopped for the night.
Picked it back up after my eye appointment yesterday. And that's as far as I got before work.

Much to the amusement of my boys basketball team, I kept winding through their practice, and finally:
A whole big ball of yarn! That could have been wound in under ten minutes if it hadn't been tangled during the washing of it! It only took me like 6 hours. Who needs puzzles when there's tangled yarn? That picture is to show off the computer I finally have in my new office too.
And this is what the yarn has become. The small beginnings of a lovely stole.
Pretty isn't it?

Snow Days and Exasperation

The second storm of the week came through Thursday into Friday, resulting in another snow day on Friday. Snow days, I find, are perfect for getting lots of fibery things done. Example #1: Monday's achievement:
I took that 4 oz of BFL from Tomboy Yarns (links in the last post) and spun it up. Sorry, forgot to take pics of the singles. I then proceeded to finish the knitting of the Aeolian shawl.
Isn't it pretty? Yeah, haven't made it to Ellie's to block it yet, maybe tonight. Have to get a hold of her first. But that's a pretty productive day in my book.

Wednesday, I finally made it over to see Bridget and fam for a belated Christmas. Which means that I finished the Baby Surplice and Aviatrix hat on Tuesday night. Didn't get photos of them on Miss Kathleen, but here's her first blog photo:
Not the best, I'll admit, but it was taken with my left hand while my right arm was holding her. And no matter what, she's adorable. Kaylee of course wanted her picture taken too.
She was most impatient to start doing everything included in her present. Disappointment abounds when you're three. This was the view from my parking spot when I got to work on Wednesday.
Nothing but gray. That's why people get depressed here in winter - there are way too many days that look like that.

Thursday was Rock Day, a day for spinning. So, I opted to ply up that BFL during the football game.
It still needs to be soaked, but you get the idea of what it looks like. Speaking of spinning, that night I opted to soak the Rugby yarn you saw last post too (I got some wool wash from Meagan for Christmas on Thursday).
So now it's done and ready to go. I got about 245 yds of a sport/DK weight. I love it. Now to decide what to make with it. And since I was on such a roll that night, I thought that I would soak the Fire yarn I spun up a while back and didn't wash. And that's when the night went downhill. After one soak, I expected there to be dye in the water - it's a vibrantly red and brown yarn. After two soaks, I was still okay with the bleeding. After three, I was not so happy. So I decided to let it soak overnight, as it was getting late and I was tired. This is what greeted me Friday morning:
Ummm, okay. This should be the last soak.
Or not. Maybe I should rinse it a bit, like 5 minutes. Good, now I'll soak it again.
And after one more soak,
I gave up. At least it's a bit lighter now. Hung it up to dry, figured that 16 hours of exposure to water was enough and if I did much more, I would mess with the integrity of the yarn. But this is freaking ridiculous. I'll probably have to wash the finished item 3 times too.
Yeah, even my hands were tinged by the dye. But onto a happier red thing, the sweater.
I separated the stitches for the sleeves - Wednesday I think, and I tried it on, and it fit! Yay! Now waist shaping can commence. Would've started but I got side tracked by a project I deemed more immediately necessary on Friday. Example #2 of the productiveness of snow days:
That yarn became this headband:
Finished last night actually. Isn't it great? I think so. It's double layered too:
Which means that it's extra warm. And comfy. Yay for semi-instant gratification projects. But this makes wearing a pony tail when it's cold so much easier. And it used not much yarn at all, so I'm thinking that some matching mittens are in order. Eventually. I have other things more pressing - I already have mittens. Maybe later, I'll get a picture of it in use.

So, this was the view from the window on Friday, after the snow had stopped falling.
And then yesterday, Mom went for a walk in the woods and took some spectacular winter wonderland photos:
So pretty, it almost makes me like winter. Almost. Those are for my cousin Krista - who misses the snow. I'd send her some if the post office would let me. We have some to spare.

And now I leave you with a very confused kitty. Knitting pal Debi included some knitted cat nip mouse toys with my Christmas gift, and I introduced one to Maddie the other night. She's not really been exposed to cat nip, and isn't sure she likes these interesting smelling things.
She's intrigued.