In between naps...

I'm so ready for January to be done, who's with me? My back is much improved, not enough to get back into yoga yet, but hopefully by the end of the week. So instead of being laid up because of my back, this past week and a half, it's been the plague that's had me on my ass. Not literal plague of course, it's just a cold. But it has been a helluva bad cold.  My face hurt, my sinuses, my throat, the lymph nodes in my neck,  even my left ear, all hurt. I was waking up with my eyes crusted over with gunk. I was *napping for 2-3 hours a day, sometimes twice, and still exhausted.

*I don't nap. I am not a napper. I don't even understand wtf a power nap is. I am the worst napper ever. If I do say "I'm going to lie down for a nap" my family gets scared looks on their faces because they know when I wake up from said nap (if I manage to even fall asleep) I will be the grumpiest bear EVER. I'm downright mean after a nap. My naps are a mess. I lie down, and within 20 minutes of laying there, trying to sleep, I will have to pee. Even if I pee'd before. (I drink a lot of tea) Fine, I go pee, and settle back down. Another 20 minutes and whoo! starting to feel drowsy, might fall asleep! Inevitably, something happens, a cat scratches at the door, or a kid yells about something or the phone rings. K, fine. That's dealt with. I finally fall asleep, only to have my alarm go off 15-20 minutes later. I have to set an alarm otherwise, I will sleep 6hrs and then I will be up all night and my schedule will be completely out of whack. It's all bad. 

While in my fugue/sick state I started obsessing about knitting Tincanknits Harvest cardy in Malabrigo Worsted.   Not only did this fantasy sweater have to be knit in malworsted, I also wanted it to be knit with the colourway Arco Iris or Candombe.  (which are gorgeous, but vry much out of my comfort zone)
Thankfully, I am over it. Because how crazy would that be? A sweater knit with malworsted would be the squooshiest, most comfortable sweater ever...but the pilling! Oh, it would pill terribly, and I'd probably, accidentally felt it as well.
I will eventually knit the Harvest cardy, but it will NOT be in Malworsted, and it will not be a variegated colourway. 

When I wasn't obsessing about ridiculous yarn choices for cardies, I was mentally planning the stoker pullover, and I started thinking about the construction. It's knit in pieces and I'm not confident in my ability to convert it to a top down pattern. I could probably manage to convert it to a partial bottom up in the round, and then knitting from the armholes as flat pieces, but that could get vry complicated as well. I don't want to use my gorgeous Julie Asselin Sevilla on this sweater that I can't try on as I knit, so I'm thinking of using stashed knitpicks wool (because if I hate the sweater and never wear it, it won't have cost a lot). The problem with this plan is that I don't have a sweaters quantity of kp swish. I have lots of leftover Rainforest heather, and lots of  Dove heather, but not a full sweaters worth of either. So, my solution to this problem, is to knit the bottom half of the sweater with the darker colour, switching to the dove just under my bust.  But again, because there's no trying on the sweater as I go, how can I make sure the change in colour is under my bust?  There's got to be a solution and I'm just too dopey to figure it out.  I'm also kind of iffy on the boxy shape of the sweater, I like my curves, and want them a little highlighted, not hidden. I will have to study the pattern some more.
EDIT: Tuesday morning edit to say that I realize I am overthinking this...I could actually just make a regular sweater, like the Andi Satterlund sweater, and turn the neckline INTO A COWL. 

Anywhooo, thanks to plague, there was very little knitting until Sunday. Yes, I dragged my sorry self out of the house to possibly infect others because I wanted to knit so very badly, and it just wasn't happening at home. Being at home made me want to be in bed, under the duvet. Sleeping. Not knitting. Luckily mah knitta was not afraid of my pesky germs and agreed to meet up with me for a little fibre crafting...she even brought me some homemade cheesecake nomnomnom. She's the greatest!

So we knit, and I finished my second bulky sock knit with the bulky O wool.

Yay!

And I came pretty close to finishing my Andi Satterlund sweater too! So, sunday night, after the 6yr old went to bed, I decided to just hunker down and finish it. I didn't, because I ended up being too tired and having to go to bed, but it was very very close, and this morning after I napped (yeah I did) I finished  the last couple of rows on the sleeve, bound off and then picked up the stitches for the neckline. Instead of the 5 rows of ribbing for the neckline, I only knit 3 before binding off. 

I'm pretty pleased with how the sweater turned out.

I think.

My picking up of stitches could be better. Maybe I should watch a tutorial, or read some instructions on picking up stitches? So many things in knitting that I've just done without really knowing what I'm doing, which is ridiculous given all the resources that are available. 

Also, I realized when trying on the sweater, that I did a regular ribbed bind off for the right sleeve, and a stretchy bind off for the left sleeve. *sigh* 

I'm not going to re-do it. I have no effs to give. 

As far as I'm concerned, this sweater is done and ready to be worn.

I'll just tuck the ends in until I get around to weaving them in. 

Here's a bonus shot of my bulky socks, with photobombing kitty!

2 Year Blogiversary!

I've been blogging for two whole years! Thank you readers! (I know there are a couple of you out there, I see the stats)

Back is still out. Was getting better, then got worse. I'm trying to follow the advice of a doctor I saw a few years back-"do not stay in bed the whole time, you must get up and move around"-it's hard to find the balance between doing enough and over-doing though. I find it very difficult to ask for help, there's been a lot of frustration on my part.

Anywhoo, ze knitting...Sunday/stitch&bitch, met up with mah knitta, worked on my cropped sweater.  I did the nifty colour change and am almost finished the first sleeve.

I basically just have to decide how long the sleeve is going to be, and then I'll be able to bind off.

 Tuesday, I finished my second pair or foot ovens.

It took me 20 minutes to get them on, and I pretty much haven't taken them off since. Mostly because I can't. That whole bending over thing isn't working too well for me at the moment.

Wednesday/Thursday-in a muscle relaxant haze, I decided the sweater wasn't long enough and ripped out the ribbing. Started re-knitting, and was about an inch into the re-ribbing and realized that I hadn't ripped back quite far enough. I did not rip out the first row of ribbing, so there were purl bumps dissecting the old section of stockinette and the new section. I could have cried. Ok, I did cry. I cried hard. I blame the muscle relaxers (and also the binge watching of the original Degrassi on youtube,)

When I was emotionally able to deal-I ripped back again, got rid of those purl bumps and put the stitches back on the needle and knit one round before setting it aside.

As you can see, the sleeves are still on the needles...this is because I never decided how long was long enough, and since I ripped out the bottom, I can't try the sweater on because it's on the needles and I cannot be arsed to take it off and on the needles again.


Because I'm still sad about ripping out the bottom of the sweater twice (TWICE *cry cry*) I opted to cast on for another pair of foot ovens instead. This pair is being made with O wool in Sprig (which is a celery green) and as a contrast colour, some stashed Valley Yarns superwash bulky in the colour Grass (which is a medium green)

Let me tell you, it's a lot easier to knit standing up if you're working on a small project!

yarny shoppings

Things are somewhat back to normal, schedule-wise. The boys are back in school (grumpily), and the dude is back at work (also rather grumpily). The at-home daughter is off for another week, much to the envy off the menfolk.
Not normal is my back. Pulled a muscle in my lower back last Sunday. Yeah, awesome, right before the insanity of back to school. So it's been a week of popping muscle relaxers and very little knitting.
That's frustration-finally have some quiet time to knit and cannot sit comfortably enough to knit. So the first half of the week was spent upright as much as possible (as its really the only way i'm comfortable when I re-injure this muscle) and being grumpy about the back pain.
Thursday I decided I had had enough of being stuck in the house, and I wanted to spend those xmas gift certificates that have been taunting me! Retail therapy, yarn stylee.  I hobbled over to two of my favourite yarn stores and by hobbled I mean I took the subway, and then buses to cut down on actual walking.
I bought stuff!
Beautiful yarny stuffs!

First stop: Mouline. My plan was to get 5 skeins of Malabrigo Rios in Azul Profundo. There was none in stock. I didn't see any other colours of rios that I wanted, and was just going to leave, when I saw that the Julie Asselin Sevilla was on sale.  Sevilla is 100% merino, worsted weight, 200yards of squooshy goodness.

This gorgeous stuff is called  Azul. It is to be knitted into the Stoker Pullover by Caro Sheridan.

Of course, as I'm carrying my armful of on-sale squooshiness to the cash, I spot some yarn I've not seen before. Andes by DROPS. It's a super bulky yarn made from 65% wool and 35% alpaca.

The colour is light grey and as you can plainly see, I've already started knitting with it. I'm knitting bulky socks...because, since making the *foot ovens, I'm obsessed with bulky socks! They knit up super fast and they are amazingly comfy and warm. My downstairs neighbors go back to Brazil from January to March and they don't heat their place while they're gone, meaning our floors are absolutely freezing. Since they won't take me with them to Brazil, foot ovens are the next best thing. (If I keep telling myself this, will I eventually believe it??)

After Mouline, I popped a muscle relaxer and went to Espace Tricot, where I immediately went to the shelves with the Quince&Co yarns. Looked at the colours of Lark. Decided not to go with the blues that I was immediately drawn to-because, how much blue yarn does one chick need? The blues are pretty fantastic, but I went with Twig:

Not as beige-y as the picture shows, more of a light brown. A nice neutral. This will be for my second Aiken. I love this sweater, and if you are a faithful reader, you may remember that my first Aiken grew significantly after washing. I still wear the fuck out of it, but I want one that fits a little better.

Then on Friday, I met with mah knitta at Maison Tricote.

It felt like it had been forever since we'd been there. We had this yummy lemon ginger tisane and I worked on the sleeve of my non-cropped Cropped Sweater and mah knitta worked on her Harvest Cardigan  (which I really like the look of now that I know that you don't have to pick up stitches in the front) which I may have to knit at some point. I love TinCanKnits stuff.
I bought yarn there too.
Yay giftcards!
I've been drooling over Blue Moon Fibre Arts Woobu for many, many months. Apparently I am not the only person who coveted the Woobu, as there was only one skein left. Woobu is a generous 620 yards of sport weight merino/bamboo blend (60/40%) and it's loooovely:

This colour is called Pining For Ewe, and i'm planning to use it to make the black death shawl by Hoxton Handmade. I love the idea of wearing something called black death...it appeals to my morbid side.

And because I can't pass up a sale. I also bought two skeins of O wool Legacy bulky.

The colour is called Sprig, it's a very light green. I don't know why I took a picture of only one skein, but let me assure you, there are two of these lovely skeins. They are going to be another pair of bulky socks. Because I am obsessed with the bulky socks.

Oh! Cannot forget that I also bought a needle gauge, super cute!

Obviously someone made it by hand. I suspect it's a local artisan, I should have asked. Anyway, it's the perfect size for my knitting bag!




Did I mention that I finished my foot ovens? I finished them right before I threw my back out. I luuuuurve them. They are so comfy and so warm and I never want to take them off. So I must make more, because yunno, foot stank. I haven't even washed them yet!

So snazzy!
My new favourite project for knitting with bulky wool! Only downside? NO interest in knitting sock weight socks. None. Zip. Nada. My ugleh sock #2 is at the heel flap and will probably stay that way until spring. All those single socks? No seconds until spring. Give me all the bulky socks for my frigid feets!

I still have one gift certificate left, Fabrikville-I'll see you next week!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a manageable holiday season without too much stress and strain, and possibly even some enjoyment!
Mine went well, better than I expected. I struggled a bit with "buy more things for all the people" that was running through my brain on a constant loop, but I think I did okay. I definitely did really well in the receiving department. I was quite spoiled; gift certificates to three yarny places, knit blockers (which I cannot wait to use) two colouring books (love them! and it's been a nice way to spend time with B-we colour together in the morning and it's super chill)  two teapots-one  clear glass teapot, with a bunch of flowering teas and a gorgeous deep red tea pot, pajamas and a shirt. Plus, a skein of bulky weight baby alpaca in a lovely purple that I'm using to knit some super luxurious slipper socks.  It was slipper socks or a shawl, but I want to wear this yarn right friggin' now and the shawl won't knit up as fast as slipper socks. I also received a pink himalayan salt lamp (I keep licking it-it's very salty. I think the licking is a reaction to all the sugar that's been in the house) and an oil diffuser, and last but not least, a taxidermied bat! It's super cute with it's little face, i'm in love!
Pictures of some of the stuffs:
                                          Lovely, clear tea pot with some flowering jasmine tea!

                                          Gorgeous red teapot!

                                          Yay Knit Blockers!!

                                          Baby Alpaca-so so nice! (wound because must knit it right now!)

                                          Essential oil diffuser (currently using lemongrass eo-yum)

                                          Himalayan salt lamp.

                                          Fancy scissors and measuring tape (can never have enough of either)

                                          Colouring with B, superheros for him, folk art for me.

                                          Bat! (still in package until I figure out where he belongs)

Due to the insanity of the holiday (shopping, cleaning, cooking, celebrating, everyone home) I've only got one finished object, and it's just a sock.

I did manage to get some knitting done on my "cropped" sweater by Andi Satterlund. I put cropped in quotation because I do not wear cropped sweaters, so I elongated it, had to do some increases to accommodate these hips-but the body is done and bound off. YAY. The sweater needs sleeves, but I haven't decided yet if I'm going to change to the second colour like the pattern calls for. I didn't change to the second colour during the body, as I forgot about the colour change until I started ribbing, and didn't feel like ripping back. Also, undecided about the neckline. I like the unfinished neckline, it's got a bit of a roll neck feel to it and I think it looks cute, but maybe it will look weird when I've knit the sleeves? I guess I'll find out eventually.
                                          Last Sunday stitch&bitch, worked on the sweater with mah knitta and mah Timmies, a much needed Sunday break from insanity...speaking of, is it Sunday yet?

What did I finish in 2015? I *think* I listed everything, but i'm not positive and I'm not double checking-I've posted an awful lot since the beginning of last year, going through it all once was enough.

Finished objects I have knit since the first of January 2015:
-second vanilla latte sock (vanilla-latte-socks)
-maize mittens (2nd time)( maize-3)
-Twist hat (lost pattern, maybe Malabrigo)
-Askew (for the third time) ( askew)
-Mittens for B (lost pattern)
- slippers for B (family-foot-warmer-slippers)
-Easy V-neck (with lace pattern added) (easy-raglan-v-neck)
-Dew Point shrug (dew-point)
-Hitchhiker (x2) (hitchhiker)
-bunch of bats (boo-the-bat)
-Optimistic Mitts (optimistic-mitts)
-vanilla socks in Turtle Purl Twilight
-vanilla socks made  with Knit One Crochet Two in Cream
-Sinnesfrid (sinnesfrid)
-Be simple (be-simple-variations)
-vanilla socks in Biscotte&Cie melon d'eau
-one vanilla sock in Biscotte&Cie charivari
-one pixie dust dock in cascade heritage blood orange
-Nivernais (nivernais)
-Vite Cowl (vite-cowl)
-Aiken sweater by Andi Satterlund (aiken)
-vanilla socks in Biscotte&Cie Arc en Ciel
-dino cat hat (dinosaur-7)
-Skoodlet (skoodlet)
-Autumn in Garrison (2nd one) (autumn-in-garrison)
-Super hero mask (superhero-mask)
-Zuzu's petals (zuzus-petals)
-Lomond hat (x2) (lomond-hat)
-Infinity scarf knit from Illimani
-Maize mitts (third time)
-infinity scarf made with Debbie Bliss Paloma
-Basket Whip cowl (basket-whip)
-Chullo hats with alpaca (x2)
-Leethal Mary Jane slippers (x4? x5?) (leethal-mary-janes)
-kitty pumpkin hat (can't find the link, done by Sara Thomas)
-vanilla socks knit with Misti Alpaca Chocolato
-Mittens for B (x2) lost pattern
-Ear flap hat for B (childs-earflap-hat)
-Andi Satterlund bulky cowl (a-bulky-cowl)
-Antelope hat (antelope-hat)
-1 and a half  vanilla socks in Manos Del Uruguay Cabaret
-Virpi shawl (virpi-2)
-Calorimetry (calorimetry)
-one sock knit with Felici Fanciful

Works in Progress:
-a butt-ton of second socks
-"cropped" sweater (a-cropped-sweater-for-winter)
-Greenfield cardigan (greenfield-cardigan)
-*Foot Ovens (by Stephanie Pearl Mcphee-modified to be knit cuff down) (foot-ovens)

*I started these late Thursday afternoon (yesterday) I'm knitting them with the Baby Alpaca Sport-which is a bulky weight 100%  baby alpaca wool. The colour i'm using is called Rosemary Heather. It's very lovely. I'm enjoying knitting with it. I've paired it with some stashed kp Swish Bulky in Aegean because my feet are ginormous and I'm worried about running out of the lovely, lovely alpaca. So, I'm knitting the cuff, the heel and the toe in the aegean (which is a teal-y colour), and the leg and foot in the rosemary heather. It looks really pretty, as the rosemary heather has tiny flecks of teal in it!

This post took a hella long time to write out, with the links and the pictures; taking away from valuable knitting time, now I'm going to go finish my foot ovens!