Finished Object: Print O' the Wave Stole

The Specs:

Pattern: Print O' the Wave Stole by Eunny Jang

Yarn: Taiga Yarns ALPACA

Color:  Lavender

Amount: 5 skeins, 1040 yards, 250g

Size: stole sized

Needles: US 5, 3.75mm

For: me

Start to Finish: Feb 2008 to October 2010

Notes: I am pleased with myself for this one!  Wore it for BFF's wedding, so it sat for a while before I finally finished and blocked it.  It lived on the top of my dresser for a long time, before enough items spilled and the cat threw up on it and a stain set in.  Would definitely knit this pattern again.

Coloured Plastics*

I am sick, and while still able to breathe, am regularly attempting to cough up a lung or two.  And cold meds?  They tend to make me kinda loopy.  Honestly, I'd rather be drunk - then I'd at least have had the chance to enjoy a few good beers or whiskeys or what-have-yous.  (Is there a drink called "what have you"?  If not, I should create it and lo, it shall be awesome.)

So, I'm home, sick from work, losing my voice just in time for a presentation that I have to give in class on Monday morning.  Should be fun.

Look, knitting (and a kitten...)

Urban Aran, with kitten for scale.  Fronts, back, and most of the sleeves are complete.  I still need to order more yarn to finish the sleeves and collar... Something tells me that I won't be wearing this til the fall.  Which is really no surprise.

Print O the Wave:

Basically, it is a large lump on the floor, as I am sloooooooowly working my way around, attaching the boarder.  Had a few complete brain meltdowns in my attempts to figure out what, exactly, I was supposed to be doing.  Not sure that I'm completely correct, but so far, I like what I see.  (well, minus the endless repeats of this over and over and over again, for the rest of all time.)

OpArt: 

I have started this like, seven times. Not even kidding.  And ... first, I am NOT going to be knitting garter stitch in the round on a blanket that has at least 700+ stitches on the last couple of rows.  Nope, not happening.  Secondly, it puckers and no matter what I did, I could never find a way to join the new color that I liked.  And when I went back and wove the ends in, no matter what I did, it looked bad and felt worse.  I love the concept though, and I think I've figured out a way to translate it into crochet.  

Oh, yes.  I've gone over to the dark side.  I have become a hooker.  But only for this one baby blanket.

Yarn:

I came home one day to find a skein of Lorna's Laces forming a yarn puddle on the carpet.  The kitten had gotten bored and basically, gutted the skein.  I'm still finding bits and pieces of the label here and there, but managed to untangle the whole thing and wind it into a ball.

The yarn basket now lives on top of the fridge.  I'm hoping he doesn't figure out how to climb up there. 

And of course, continuing my habit of coming home and checking under the bed to see what, exactly, is not supposed to be under there.  Current list includes the following:

-one tomato

-one plum

-one tupperware container that had held lunch and had been sitting in the sink, waiting for me to empty the dishwasher so I could reload it.  He managed to pry the lid off and eat all the left-over rice from that particular lunch.

-four or five different skeins or balls of yarn, stolen from my stash.

-various articles of clothing, dug out of the dirty laundry pile

-my glasses - luckily for him, they never seem to land lens-side down

Of course, he is currently curled up on the desk in front of me, using my left arm as a pillow.  Good thing he's so cute.

*Doug Randle

Hello, My Name is Grumpy

I feel like I spend all weekend trying to Get Stuff Done for the coming week, only to then spend the week Trying To Catch Up.  No wonder I never want to do anything on a Friday night - my one and only chance to sit back and relax for a few hours, without feeling  guilty.

This is what I get for taking a crazy course load and refusing to sacrifice (all of) my sanity.  (Just most of it.)

In other news, the weather has been crazy up-and-down lately, going from beautiful blue skies one day to cold, damp, and rainy but still with hints of blue another.

notice the rubber ducky? He? She? lives on the dash of my car and I have not been able to figure out if it is a
 male or a female.  Shirt is cut rather ... risque for a female, but those eyelashes are just not male.

I just want spring - to be able to go outside and enjoy nice weather on my lunch breaks, to walk to and from Thursday nights without risking slipping on ice, breaking a leg, and freezing to death.  

That is the weather I want - picture is from something in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's collection, but hell if I can remember anything about it.  (Hrm, possible final project for Museum Informatics?  Upload your pictures from the museum, and the site will (hopefully) give you information about the art?)

In happier news, I have solved the problem in Print O The Wave, turned the heel in the second sock, and gotten around to ordering more yarn for Urban Aran.  And started OpArt, for the same classmate/coworker as Sheldon.  (The baby was born last night, 11:05pm, 7lbs, 7oz, 21".  How big does the blanket need to be then?)

Hrm.  I seem to be all over the place tonight, writing is uber-sloppy, AND I'm grumpy.  Hello, February, how are you?

why I need to buy more yarn:

I need a new project, and soon.

I ought to finish Sizzle, so I can wear it this spring/summer.  But eh.  I don't wanna knit 1.5" of seed stitch on the neckline and sleeves.  Plus, I feel like I messed up when sewing up the sides, so I'll have to re-do that as well.

I messed up somewhere on attaching the border to Print O the Wave, and have a devil of a time when I attempt to tink back, let alone rip back, the edging.  This, of course, is a fairly easy fix - I just need to sit down for a few minutes and take care of 16 stitches.  

I don't want to start another Sheldon, because that's TV knitting - I need to be able to look at the pattern, count stitches and rows.  

I ran out of yarn for Urban Aran, sadly - fronts and back are complete and I'm halfway done the sleeves.  I might be able to finish ONE sleeve with the yarn I have left, but that leaves me with half a sleeve and the collar to finish and Knitpicks isn't shipping more of that particular color until the 16th.  I should consider checking Ravelry, but I think I need three more balls and that might be hard to find there.

The gloves are frustrating me - I don't know the magical formula for knitting fingers and messed up.  But ripping back and starting all over is SO ANNOYING.   That one can just go sit in time out for a while as I try to figure out the trick.

The socks I'm currently knitting in class, at the movies, while reading, are coming along very well.  However, that means that I will soon be done and ... well.  Then I need to find another boring project to work on.  But I'll also have another pair of socks.  Hrm.

I swatched for a baby blanket with shiny new metal DPNs from Knitpicks... and I'm going to blame a certain young kitten for the fact that one of those needles is missing.  No idea where it is.  I even crawled along the floor for a while, checking to see if it fell into any of the cracks in the floor.

I came home the other day to find that he had pulled 13 of my bamboo DPNs out of my knitting basket.  THIRTEEN. Luckily, I managed to find all of them - most had been batted under the rug.  Of course, I'm missing three - but I think they are back in PA - and have no idea which ones are what size, between US 1, 2, and 2.5.  Now would be a good time to buy a gauge, I suppose.

Pictures to come later, of all my projects.  You know, when I'm bored and avoiding homework this weekend.

Squeee!

A few squee-worthy announcements:

I was accepted into the University of Maryland's MLS program.

I was accepted into Indiana University's MLS program.

I bought an iMac and it arrived this morning.  BEST reason to get out of bed EVER.  Also, I now love my FedEx man.  (When I orderd my iPod last year, neither I or my roommates were ever home when they tried to deliever it.  I had to sign for the package, which is fine, but I was not willing to presign for it and have them leave it on the floor outside of my door - anyone could have walked off with it.  To make a short story not as long as I could (ok, that sounded better in my head.), FedEx ended up giving my cell phone number to the driver, who called me and gave me a 20 minutes head's-up so I could skip out of class early.  Same guy delievered the iMac this morning, and thus, I love him.)

Oh, and details for those who like to know such things:
24" display, 2.8 GHz processor, 500gig hard drive, 2gig memory, nice graphics card.. the works.

It is pretty and shiny and I love it.  Best of all?  I shall not need Vista! Really, my hatred for Visita is irrational and at least partially unfounded, but it remains as is.  I refuse to change for those who have come to accept Vista as the latest OS for their computer.  Me?  I just bought a computer that is at least a few hundred dollars more expensive then a comparative system running on Windows.  Cause that makes sense in my mind.

Anyway.

Also, I finished a sock that I was knitting for a friend.  Because I loved the colors of the yarn so, I took the leftovers and knit a blanket square. 4", starting with one stitch and increasing one stitch every row until I have four inches, then decreasing every row.  Most boring knitting ever, and I loved every second of it.  I'm hoping I get a similar amount of yarn left over from the second sock, so I will have TWO squares.  I know, the excitement is killing me as well.

I ripped and re-started the second Rotating Rib sock.  Still no idea if I'll have enough yarn, and yes, I realise this is a reason to knit toe-up but I hate knitting toe-up and please see above, re: irrational hatred of things I should not (necessarily) hate. But, I did three fewer repeats on the leg this time around and am willing to go back and chop off three repeats from the other sock as needed.  If I don't need the yarn for the socks, maybe I can make another square.

The square making?  It is a sickness.  I know understand Ann and Kay of Mason-Dixon Knitting.

No pictures yet, for I have yet to attempt to contect my digital camera to the shiny new computer.  That, and the printer, ought to be connected, but I'm having such fun downloading my Absolutely Must Have Programs, such as AIM (well, actually, Adium) and Opera.  Next, FireFox, for I strongly feel that every computer should have three web browsers.  And now I am just happy that IE is NOT one of my options.  Take that, crappy web browser that is dead and sucks!  (Again, the hatred.  I apologize, but really people? Do you LIKE Internet Explorer or do you just not have a choice or what?  I am confused.)

I just realized that I have a number pad again!  Number pad, I love you.  You make typing addresses and such so much easier.

Oh, back to the squee-worthy stuff:

I seem to have gotten my knitting mojo back.  Apparently, all it took was that square.  I've finished more than two repeats (out of 17 that makes up one half, so really, I've done like, nothing) of Print O The Wave and it is pretty and I love it. (Does anyone else sense a theme here?)    I have, on occasion, knit the same row three times before figuring out that the mistake must be in the pattern row one down, and so tinked all the way to that row to fix the problem, oh, three or four times now, but I am content.

And apparently, I am a process knitter, for I am knitting for the sake of knitting lace that is pretty, not something that I'll ever use.  And that is ok.

Ok, back to moving things from one computer to the other and playing with my new toy.  And eventually, I suppose I ought to go to class and take a quiz.

A List, of Sorts.

I'm currently frustrated with EVERYTHING I am knitting and thus, attempting to decide what else to work on.

Eagle's Flight sock? Oh, right - I LOST IT. I am still attempting to find yarn to knit a mate for the first one. Anyone have Opal 4-Ply Uni Solid in color 1263 just sitting around, waiting to be useful? Let me know.

Rotating Rib: I don't know if I have enough yarn to complete these. Which - wha? The cuffs, they are only 6" long. Sure, it is a rib, and that uses a little more yarn, but really? I got past the heel and then realized that I think I used the wrong sized needle, because something was off with the size. So, I ripped and am starting again, this time with a larger needle. I am also holding out hope that this will magically increase the amount of yarn so I have enough.

Sizzle: The knitting is finished. Now, I just have to seem it. I started the seeming ... and something went wrong. The two sides appear to be different lengths. To which - wha? So I put it in time out.

Print O' The Wave: Oh, yeah. In a fit of "I have nothing to knit, oh no!" I started Eunny's Print O' the Wave in some of this. So far, so good? Maybe? I think I missed up the invisible cast on on the 38th (And final!) try. Not sure if I'll have 80 stitches with to knit the other half. We shall see. Also, this requires reading the chart, and thus, is for tv watching. I'm not sure about class, but I think it might require too much counting. Maybe if I printed the chart WITH the repeated section four times? I dunno, but not so much with that right now either.

So, I leave you with a picture of the snow taken at 4am from my balcony. I have no idea how this actually turned out cause there's not a lot of light at 4am and I was shivering, but oh, do I like it. It was calm and peaceful and you could hear the snow. And then you could hear the old beat up pickup truck attempting to get out of his parking spot and failing miserably, but that's one of the joys of living next to a parking lot, no?