Whoa, two in a week!

I know, hard to believe. Two posts in a week. Very unusual. There really hasn't been a lot of progress on the sweater. Maybe two or three rows, so no picture of that. There was knittting, and a completed project!I ran across this pattern on a message board. It's from dixiehellcat and it is her obscenely simple knitted house sox pattern. I printed the pattern, just so I wouldn't lose it, and then it sat on my desk and mocked me for several days. It taunted me to knit up a quick pair since the yarn was in my stash. Yeah, I will admit it, I have some Lion Brand stuff in the stash. It's good for some things, like these socks!

It whispered things like "I'm a quick pattern, the sweater won't mind being put on hold. And besides, your feet are a little chilly." So who am I to resist a pattern that wants to be knit? I cast on the first sock last night at around 9 pm. I finished it in just about 4 hours. Yes, I was up until 1 am. That's not unusual, but it was pretty cool to have a sock done that fast. I even remembered how to kitchner the toe without dragging out a book. I cast on the second one shortly before 2 this afternoon and finished it a little before I took this picture at 7:30. This is a picture of my desk at work. Very vanilla.

I knit it the second sock at work between calls, so 5 1/2 hours, minus a 1 hour lunch that I spent running around doing errands, is not too shabby. They fit OK, and even though they have too much acrylic in the fiber, they are still going to be neat little house socks. Actually, they would make great hiking or snow shovelling socks in a bulky wool.

Hmmm, as I typed that last sentence I remembered a nice vareigated red Lamb's Pride super bulky hank of yarn in my stash. The temptation to drag it out of the bin and whack off another pair of these is overwhelming. But I promised the sweater that I would finish the sleeves up until the increases stop. And since I want the sweater happy, I'd better get moving.

Happy Monday!

Yes, believe it or not I am happy this Monday. I wasn't until the mail was brought in, up until then it was a boring, normal, icky Monday. But I love mail, and especially mail from my son at bootcamp. We got 3 letters today, so I am a very happy Mom. He's doing fine, things are going about how he expected, and he is not sick anymore. Yay!

Speaking of bootcamp, here is a picture of the sweater. Again, the color on this picture is showing up a much brighter red than the cranberry color it really is. Someday when I remember, I will take a better picture in natural light. That should help. I am knitting both sleeves at once so that all of the increases and decreases happen at the same place on both sleeves. I have about 10" done. He is about 47% done with bootcamp, I am about 15% done with sweater. I am using the sleeves as 25% of sweater theory.

My friend Anne said sweater sleeves are about one third of a sweater. I will continue to use the more conservative figure, thereby tricking myself into thinking I need to go a little faster. I'm not worried. Yet.

Two Weeks Worth....

Well, the days are getting shorter and the view from my travelling knitting studio has changed quite a bit. I don't have to worry about parking in the shade to stay cool and comfortable at lunch anymore. I am starting to park in a sunny spot to take advantage of not only the great view, but to have a little extra warmth. A note here, I work a later shift and my "lunch" starts at 4pm. It has been cold enough to wear the Trekking sweater, but warm enough to knit in my car at lunch. Colorado weather is wierd, but I like it a lot.

I finished spinning up the brown Teasdale roving, and then finished doing my first ever 3-ply yarn. It's not as even as I'd like, but it looks pretty good. I have about 211 yards, and that may be enough for a pair of mittens. We will have to see what I decided to do with it. I need a new digital camera, this one does not have a macro mode for close-ups, or a decent zoom lens, which I will need in January at bootcamp graduation.




Speaking of bootcamp, I am out of the swatch stage of the sweater. I have 1/3 of a sleeve cuff finished. If you use the guidelines of the two sleeves making up approximately 25% of a sweater, I figure I am....hmm....really not far enough along. Mike is 35% done. I think I still have a decent shot at wearing the sweater at graduation, please don't let on that you know I am delusional, OK?
This picture looks slightly lighter and redder than the reality. The picture of the swatch in the prior post actually shows the color better. It is more of a darker cranberry color than this.

A First for Me

It's a first for me. It's a sweater I knit for myself. The sweater was knit using Barbara Walker's "Knitting From the Top Down" book, basic raglan pullover. I love it. I finished it last Sunday but have not gotten a chance to wear it because..... get this..... it's been too warm! All that snow and now it's too warm to wear the new sweater. How unfair is that?I used 8 different shades of trekking sock yarn, holding two strands together throughout, and size 7 needles. The color combination was from a previously posted pattern. I think the next one may have a more subtle blending. Yes, there will be another, probably in browns and greens and blues.
Now I have to get cracking on the bootcamp sweater. Mike is 23% done with camp, I am 50% done with the swatch. I know it looks like a whole swatch, but the gauge is off. I am optimistically believing I'll only have to change needle sizes once to get the right gauge. It's a neat little texture, I like it a lot. The designer calls it a fake rib pattern.
I've also done some plying of the brown Teasdale, it's also looking pretty good. There is still some roving to spin and then finish plying. I have started the first of 13 helmet liners and that is going OK. I'm not perfectly happy with the needles I'm using. The circumference of the circular needle is only a tiny bit long, but the length of the tip is too long. I am constantly shifting stitches and that's kind of annoying. I have made very little progress on sewing Meg's present. I had to throw that info in, just in case she's reading.