Market Bags

So gratifying, they use up cotton I've had sitting around, and they are fun to take to the Farmer's Markets. I've had lots of compliments and requests, so these may be in heavy rotation for presents.

I'm still here

Just working on photography!

Spring!

It's really starting to feel like spring lately. I kicked that head cold with the help of some antibiotics and a trip to Austin to visit a friend of ours. So now I'm rejuvinated to work on... a sweater. I thought that by this time of year I would be making something more seasonal like a shawl to wear on chilly nights or in overairconditioned buildings, but my projects go so slowly that they are really quite independent of the time of year. Except for baby blankets, which are in unusually high demand of late, not because of my particular workmanship, but because there are a lot of babies being born! I just finished a yellow Grandma's Favorite for my nephew Nathan Scott and threaded a black ribbon in it, should have taken a picture, sigh. Maybe when I get to meet him :)

yep still sick

I did finally break down and buy a neti pot, I had really been meaning to get one for years but sunflowerfairy knits convinced me. It's kind of fun, I thought it would be painful and upsetting like when you're learning to swim at the pool and get water up your nose. It's way more gentle than that.

Knittingwise I am working on a top secret project, and doing some finishing work on baby blankets since I am sensing another crop coming along. I haven't done much with the red top down sweater because i really want to measure it/ try it on since I went down two needle sizes. It could be a whole different sweater for all I know!

Head Cold From Hell

Usually being sick does not suck that much for me because I kick it within 48 hours, I only get sick once a year, and I can spend that time in bed watching TV on the internet and knitting. Right now I have this cold that has been going around, and people I have surveyed say it lasts anywhere from 2 weeks to several months (with pinkeye). Right now I am in day 5 and I will spare you some of the mucusy details, but the thing is I feel so crappy I don't even feel like knitting.

In between back episodes of Lost and Friday Night Lights (I don't even LIKE football) I have managed to get a start on the new Deep Breath. I realized that part of my swatch phobia is due to:

1) If I bought the needles for the project, and then swatched it and realized I need smaller ones, I definitely don't want to go out and get ANOTHER pair. Having a set of Boye interchangeables helps with that a lot.

2) If I make a swatch, I tend to count the stitches and say "eh, close enough!" This is related to point 1. I unconsciously round up or down so that I don't have to switch needles.

3) I can make a swatch that is spot on, but this whole blocking at the end thing has me freaked out. It's a wild card.

4) I realized that when I knit in round, continental, it's much looser than when I swatch in continental on straights. I guess I could swatch in the round but that seems like I would have to cast on and knit a ton of stitches. Jenn started telling me some way she does it, but after the 3rd or 4th mathematical computation I was lost. I will get her to explain it to me again when my head doesn't feel like it's been injected with Brie.

So I made a mini swatch, just to confirm point four, but not large enough to actually be useful. I'm going down 2 needle sizes to a 6, and this is cotton so much less springy than the wool I used previously. I hope I don't overshoot and make it too small and tight, but I figure since it is top down I can correct course along the way.

Hey! some actual content!

Ok so I guess the reason I haven't done anything with this blog is that I felt I didn't have anything worth posting/ saying but now I do! I finally finished my first sweater, Deep Breath. After 6 months. Ok well during that time I was also working on hats, gloves, baby sweaters, baby hats, etc. I'm not really done with this sweater, because the body and arms stretched out freakishly long when I blocked it, so I am going to take the sleeves and bottom edge in YET AGAIN. I thought wool would shrink a little but apparently that is not the case unless you get into some crazy semi-felting mode, which I might do in the future. For now I'm just wearing it to get the feel of it and make modifications for my next go-round on Deep Breath, this time using cotton. (the red Kona Bay that Sunflower Fairy Knits raves about).

Cotton scares me (for knitting). I haven't really used it much, but it seems unforgiving and prone to random shrinkage or expanditure. I'm sure it will be fine, especially if I knit a swatch (as I type this however I realize that I'm not going to bother, I'm still doing something wrong with swatches since they never seem to help me).

The main thing is I want to do the armholes differently so there is not the peek-a-boo lacy increase. Tonight is SnB night but I'm so sick with a head cold I don't think I'll be able to make it. grrr. Maybe I can call someone, after all it's a knitting emergency, I want to cast on RIGHT NOW!!

I'm amazed at how much feedback I get considering I don't actually put any content on my blog.

I guess my attention has been hijacked by Facebook. I do actually see the point of keeping a knitting blog, and especially updating my projects on Ravelry. Even cataloguing my yarn makes total sense now. Unfortunately I only get a burning desire to work on all these aspects when I'm at work and don't have access to yarn, cameras, etc. Probably sometime soon it will happen though, I tend to get sucked into things I'm interested in, if that makes any sense!