Not much progress...

So last week I felt very productive, knitting-wise, because I used my knitting to avoid a lot of stuff for school... This week, of course, I had to work out all the school stuff (of which there is still much more left) and so didn't knit much.

I got one sleeve of my Climbing Vines Pullover (rav link) done, but it only has 3/4 length selves so it went very fast. Here's the finished sleeve:



It's pretty impossible to get a picture of what this yarn actually looks like. It's definitely not the bright red that this picture makes it looks like. It's much darker and a little more maroon.

I also finished the Burger and a Movie Scarf (rav link) that I have been working on all year. It's blocking right now, but not dry yet. Here's a picture of it all pinned down.



My scarf in all it's Noro-glory. Actually, in three skeins I only found one knot, which, for Noro, is pretty good. I used up pretty much every last inch of yarn. Here's all that was left.



Because of blocking the scarf ended up being about 5.5 feet which for me is a bit short of a scarf, but I figure this will just be a tuck-under-the-coat type scarf. I'll probably leave it with Andrew since he still has one more Wisconsin winter in front of him.

I got my knitpicks order that had all the shipping problems today! I had ordered the Montavilla Market Bag kit which comes with four skeins of the new Simply Cotton organic undyed yarn. It's so fantastically soft, I just keep petting the yarn. I actually cast on for the bag as soon as I opened the package but I only have 4 row knit so I didn't think it quite merrited a picture... This is going to knit slowly because I'll just be petting the yarn so much of the time.

How much have I been procrastinating this week?

This Much:



That's right, remember last week when the back of my climbing vines pullover was only 1.5 inches... Well, now I'm almost done with the back, and it's all thanks to the massive number of projects for school I have hanging over my head. Every time I think about how much work I'm going to have to do to get the 4 different papers that are due in the next two weeks done I pick up my knitting. While it doesn't do much to solve the problem it has kept me from jumping off the nearly-completed College Ave. bridge. If you're wondering how I've been able to knit on this sweater when last week I posed a picture of my needles broken in several places, the answer is simple--Superglue and nail polish. They're by no means perfect and my yarn snags just a little every row but at least I can knit. Can you see the chip?



I ordered some new needles on the 12th from Knitpicks but hit a SNAFU. They printed the shipping label without my street address, only my apartment number. Of course the post office couldn't deliver the package so I called them and explained the problem. The first customer service person I talked to was a huge jerk and insisted that I must have forgotten to put my address in. I explained that their site remembers my address and that for my past 5 orders I've used the exact same address and there has never been a problem until now. She continued to insist that the problem MUST have come from my end but that she would "go ahead" and resend the package. I was so miffed at being talked down to as if I have never mailed a package and have absolutely no ideas about the intricacies of addresses. So a few days later I still haven't gotten any info about my new package and I call back. This time I get a very helpful woman who told me that lately they have been having problems when customers use the auto-fill function on the address screen. She said that the previous customer service rep. had "noted the problem" but hadn't actually initiated a new order, so if I hadn't called back I never would have gotten my package. Now I can see the new order on line and everything seems to have been corrected. I wish I had gotten the names of the two women I spoke to so that I could let Knitpicks know that one was fantastic and the other very rude.

I've been pretty focused on the Climbing Vines so the progress on my other two projects is pretty minuscule. If I showed you new pictures you'd think they were the same ones as last week.

Now I really MUST stop knitting and get to work on those 4(!) papers... If anyone knows why Ghana turned to military rule after independence while Senegal became a One-Party State, I'd love to hear it...

A New Goal

Alright, so I've realized that I've done a terrible job of keeping up with this blog. I'm averaging about one post a month and that's not very good seeing as a knit quite a bit in a month and then I have to have really long posts. And that makes me not blog very often because, when I do blog the posts have to be really long... So I'm breaking the cycle. I'm going to try to post at least once a week, and I've decided that Thursday will be the day that I WILL sit down and post. This will also help with the fact that I never seem to have many photos of WIPs, only finished products. So here's what's new since Tuesday...

I was so ecstatic after finishing Andrew's sweater (he didn't immediately break-up with me by the way) that I went combing the stash for a new exciting project. I really really want to make a Clapotis (rav link) after seeing one that someone from my knit night made and I have the perfect lace yarn that I could hold double stranded. However, cross-country move June 2009 is rapidly approaching and I have an embarrassing amount of yarn here at school with me. In order to not shrink red-faced in shame when my mom looks in my closet I decided that it would be wise to work on projects that will use substantial amounts of yarn, especially bulkier yarns... So I resisted the urge to cast on the Clap and cast on this instead:




I know you can't tell yet but it's the climbing vines pullover (rav link) from Interweave Knits Winter 2008. I'm knitting it out of a discontinued yarn called Pleasure from Berroco. It's a blend of Angora, Wool, and Nylon. The name says it all. This is the most fantastic yarn I have ever knit with. The yarn isn't plied it's corded and it's heaven. The balls are marked as $13.50 per ball but Andrew bought it for me over the summer at a big clearance sale so it cost him about $4 a ball. Fantastic deal! So I cast this sweater on, got done with the ribbing, got out the needles I needed for the body, set them on the bed, went to get something from the other room, came back, sat down on the bed, and...



So I ordered another set of needles but they won't be here until Monday. And, like The Hulk, That Makes Me ANGRY! I got all excited about a new project and now I have to wait. So I've been working on this instead:




It's the Burger and a Movie Scarf (rav link) from Never Knit Your Man A Sweater*. I started this way back in the fall when I first got to school as something that I could work on and read at the same time. It's made with worsted weight Noro Kureyon even thought the pattern calls for Big Noro so My version is a bit lighter than the original, but since I'm moving to warmer climes it should work nicely.

I also have these socks, which I started way back in November. November 4th to be exact. I cast on on election day and worked the toe while Andrew was in so gymnasium voting.




This is from Sensational Knitted Socks and the pattern is called Small Capitals (rav link). The yarn is Noro Kureyon Sock which is very typically Noro in that the colors are awesome, but there are random knots leading to random colors, it's full of vegetable matter, it's single ply, it's think and thin, and it's a bit scratchy. I like Noro and I expect these things from Noro so I'm not disappointed, but if you don't like what Noro does in the bigger weights, don't buy the sock version. I think I went temporarily insane when I picked this pattern for this yarn because I usually never pair textured patterns with yarn that changes color drastically, but in this case I'm glad of my small aneurysm because I'm very happy with how these look--kinda like scales in rainbow colors.

So this post ended up being quite long anyway, but it's because I dredged up all my WIPs to showcase. Now that you've seen them I can only post about what I've worked on each week and hopefully have a better record of my knitting for myself and a more exciting blog... We'll see.

Crossing the finish line

Way back in August I decided that I would knit a sweater for the Ravelympics... A heavily textured Irish fisherman's sweater... What? Needless to say, I didn't finish, and once the ravelymics ended I lost my enthusiasm for the project. I worked on it on and off a row or two at a time but didn't really put that much effort into it. The thing is, the sweater was meant for Andrew and this wniter was one of the worst Wisconsin has ever had. Needless to say I frequently got questions from him about just when exactly he would be getting his nice warm wool sweater... Finally I dicided that I needed to finish the project, so I told myself that I couldn't buy any more yarn until the sweater was finished. Three weeks later:





Originally, I found the pattern on ravelry which linked to a pattern on someone's blog but latter the pattern was linked to an old berroco pattern booklet.



The yarn is Cascade 220 heather in the color Cordova. It's basically brown with flecks of red and yellow. The sweater looked really skinny as I was knitting it because the cables pulled in so much. Before I blocked it it was only 15 inches across. After blocking it was 19.5 inches across. The pattern was written to be knit flat, but I modified it to be knit it the round. Also, the pattern was written out line by line so I charted it all out. Because it was knit in the round I had to do a small steek for the neck opening. I did a crochet line to secure the steek and it seemed to work pretty well. Of course now it's too warm to wear a wool sweater so I won't get to see my handy work in action for another 8 months... So I'm much later than most of the contestants but I'm finally crossing the finish line.

Much less exciting, I got bored with the slow progress I was making on the sweater so I whipped up this hat quickly.



Flattering picture I know... This is the Elizabeth Zimmerman Snail Hat. The patter is in Knitting Without Tears and it was also published in VougeKnitting this last winter.



I have no idea what the yarn is. It was given to me by Andrew's sister without a label. It felted so it must be animal fiber and it's super soft so my guess is merino wool. It's a cute hat and it knits up in about 2.5 hours so I can't complain.