TAKING BACK [THE KNIT]

 go to class this morning. I should have. I wasn't really tired, I just didn't feel like riding the bus for almost an hour to go to a 50 minute class. So it's noon, and I'm sitting here in my bathrobe, lurking and posting. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with the rest of my day. Maybe take my dog for a walk and some work in the yard.

Exciting news: I bound off for Mariah last night! I was going to finish sewing things up and weaving ends in, but it seems I have lost/misplaced not one but two yarn needles! So I can't do much in the way of sewing without a needle. My room is a total mess, but not enough of one to really lose stuff. I need to sew Letter Have It together too, so I'm just about to get either a metal detector or a large magnet to help me find one. I've only got the hood seam, and about 6" of one side seam to sew up, plus the 54353 ends to weave in. I'm hoping to be able to wear it on Sunday. But at this point that's just a goal.

I have wanted to put up pictures all freakin' week, but couldn't since I haven't seen my camera since St. Patrick's Day. Yeah, I have friends who borrow extremely expensive, precious things and don't return them for long periods of time. Needless to say, this will be last time for a while that I lend anything to any one. Anyway, I borrowed my sister's camera today, and took a couple of pictures:  The first is Mariah. I am working on the hood, which seems to be the most confusing part. Every few rows she says [WS] patt as set (or something along those lines) and it's really never clearly said what the pattern as set is! So I am hoping I do everything correctly and I won't end up with some big mess in the end that I will have to frog back. The directions for the short row section were really unclear as well. I am kind of glad I can see how things are supposed to be in the end and work them out that way. If I didn't think in a mechanical way like that, I would probably have been really confused!

 

The second is the Fiery Bolero from an IK issue a year or two old. (In the smaller picture it looks like there is some wavy pattern or something on it, but it is really just plain stockinette.) I really like it, but don't have #3 circs to do the ribbing around the edges, so I think I'm going to frog it. It's been in this state for 6+ months, maybe a year and I just can't take it anymore. It's done with Cotton Ease, which I love. I think I am going to frog it and make a boobholder, maybe a modified boobholder top, like the ones I have seen on craftser and such. I like the idea of puffy sleeves on a shirt but not on a shrug, and I am debating whether I should make the shrug minus the puffs or the top with them. I need to finish Mariah and the Letter Have It Bag before I do much more pertaining to this. I am trying to keep WsIP to a minimum!

 

But I'm blogging instead. I've got the left front of Mariah done, and all I've got left is the right front before I put it all together and do the yoke and hood. I'm so excited! My first big sweater is almost done. I hadn't realized that the fronts were done in stockinette, I thought that they had the same cable pattern as the sleeves. I have no idea why I thought that, but I did. So things are going faster than I expected them to. I burned through the left front while sitting at Starbucks Friday night. I'm about halfway done with the bottom ribbing on the right front and that whole piece should be done in the next couple days. Tomorrow is going to be a super SUPER busy day, though. Class all day, then a private dance lesson in preparation for St. Patrick's Day at 5:30 (more on that later), and then a scrapbooking class from 6:30-8. That's probably the usual for some of you folks, but not for me. I am a little slower-paced. I need time for things like knitting, blogging, hanging out, napping, etc. Anyway, I will perhaps have more Mariah pictures next time, and maybe some of the Letter Have It bag and some other stuff. But I'm at school now, so no pictures today. Speaking of the Letter Have It bag, I have been making no progress at all with it. I knit a couple of rows last night but that was about it. I'm on the very last part I need to do, save the I-cord but I just can't motivate myself to work on it. I really want to use it; I kind of need a new purse. But garter is so BORING! ARGH.

 

I totally had other stuff to talk about and have since been distracted. More later tonight when I get home. MAYBE.

Blogspirit has been working rather well today, perhaps I was a little harsh on it the other day! Maybe not though, we all know it sort of sucks. I've thought about switching to something else, but laziness and lack of money have stopped me.

 

I'm working on my second version of the 'Letter Have It' bag from SnBN. (That's her in the pictures above.) I've got the back panel done and am working on the front, trying to make them identical. I always go on autopilot for easy stuff like this, and I have no idea what I did, like where my modifications/mistakes were. I am glad this thing is getting felted, because it's going to be interesting. I am fairly sure I am going to run out of yarn, which is why I decided to do the skull with intarsia instead of duplicate stitch like I had the first time. Also, I'm knitting the front, back, and handles before the middle/gusset part, because it will be a lot less of a big deal if that is a little shorter than it should be.  I really want to love this bag, but it just won't let me! Hopefully it will turn out nicer than the first did. I know I still owe pictures for that, but I don't know where my sister's camera went. You will laugh when you see them, guaranteed. The before and after size difference is crazy! I think this one is only going to get run through half a cycle. Perhaps even with half of the water warm and half hot, too. I just need to be in more control of how much it felts. Another thing that has been irritating me is how horrid the intarsia looks. I hate knitting at a huge gauge like this. I know when it felts everything will even out, but I can barely stand to look at it. Picky, crazy me. ...

 

 

And in the happy department, that is the finished back of Mariah. I am now on to the fronts, and I can't believe how quickly I got the back done! That 8 inches of stockinette was a breeze! I thought I would get bored, but it was pretty much over before I even got going. I am really pleased with how this is turning out so far. I'm so excited to get it done, I really foresee myself wearing it a lot. I'm going to let myself get conceited and say what I'm really thinking: I can't wait for all the compliments I'm going to get! I really should be casting on for one of the fronts right now, but I just figured out how to get around myspace being blocked at school. This is college for christ's sake. I figure at this age/point in our lives that if we want to get on myspace at school it shouldn't really be an issue. I guess whoever is in charge disagrees.

 

I typed all this up last night, but didn't get a chance to post it, because I ended up going out to dinner and having a lovely night [this is where the kicker comes] with a boy! Perhaps sometime soon I will be like the rest of you who talk about "the boy"! Things seem to be going rather well so far; I am optimistic. eeeeeee!

Here's a big FUCK YOU! I had a nice long entry typed up. And as you might have noticed this is not it, thanks to blogspirit. UGH! The one time I don't type it up somewhere else and save it. It has been acting so well for so long. Yeah, new entry coming as soon as I'm over being mad/frustrated.