No Knitting...

Last night, as I turned my attention wholly to this stenciling business. No one warned me that it takes a long time to cut out detailed stencils! My neck and hands feel it today, from several consecutive nights of hunching over a cutting mat, gripping a craft blade with all my might. I sort of pushed it to the limit -- these little onesies need to be gifted at a baby shower this weekend, and they need a day to dry and to be washed still.

Last night, when I went to bed, this is what I saw.

Today I got up and ran downstairs to peel off the freezer paper, eager to see the finished products.

Animals:

Sun & Moon:

Whimsies:

And, my favorite -- the home states of the new baby's parents.

The best part is, I have a ton of freezer paper left over and I'm set with fabric paint. And next time I'll have a better understanding of how long it takes to cut them out!

[Knitting content to resume next week.]

Monkey One

The past few days, in my post-Cambridge glow, I've been all about my Monkey socks. I totally love this pattern - it's easy to memorize and provides a nice texture to a variegated yarn. I've been running around during the days and after work, so it's nice to be able to sit down and zone out with some Monkey knitting and tv time at the end of a busy day.

I've finished the first sock, and am really pleased with the way it fits. I will have to remember this trick of going up a needle size for the calf again. The foot fits snugly -- I can't stand loose-fitting sock feet -- but the ankle is comfy and loose. Wonderful.

(Pic of the stockinette heel -- also a really true representation of the color.)

I'm four (of six) pattern repeats into the next one, and then I'll turn the heel. That should happen tonight. (More running around: I sadly have to miss the gals at the happy place because we're going to our Nationals season ticket share draft.) But the first one went so fast that this one won't take long, I expect.

And then.... well, I think I know what my next project will be, but the yarn is hiding from me. I have to do a bit of stash-spelunking so I can start swatching. And did you see that Sockapalooza is about to rev up again? Very exciting.

But the real reason knitting is taking a back seat:

I'm trying out a new project this week, and I have spent way too much time cutting out little stencils. Fingers crossed that it works!

Help, Please

If you need yarn, please go visit the HUGE ENORMOUS KNIT HAPPENS ONLINE SALE.

Please.

Do it now.

Almost everything is marked down to insane prices.

Cathay for $3.38 a ball! Koigu at rock-bottom prices! Noro for $5/ball!

I've done my part, but please. I'm begging. Remove the rest of the temptation from me.

My wallet thanks you.

PS. Dad, thanks again for that gift certificate. It was well-spent. :)

Full of Energy

Finally! A burst of Sunday finishing at the happy place and during March Madness. (Go Jayhawks!) And now I can rest on my Cambridge laurels.

Pattern: Cambridge from RY Classic Alpaca
Yarn: Queensland Collection Uruguay DK, 6.5 balls
Needle: US4 and US5 Addi Turbos
Size: 38" - Fourth Size
Modifications: A minor one to start: for the waist ribbing, I did the 1x1 rib for 31 rows instead of 41 rows as directed by the pattern. But more significantly, I made this vest a v-neck instead of a crew neck. In the book, the men's version is a v-neck, but the women's is a crew. I took the numbers for the neckline of the smallest men's size and kluged it with the armhole shaping of the women's large. And then I held my breath. It worked! Also, when I attached the 1x1 rib trim at the neckline, I took time to center the decreases so they pointed in to the middle. (The directions had all of the stitches slanting to the left, which I think would just look wonky).

I am uberpleased with the way the centered stitches turned out. I'm glad it was worth my effort in rejiggering them. (Had to pull out the trusty Vogue Knitting workbook to figure out which would look best. I felt like a real designer.)

And I am just thrilled with the way this vest fits. It's exactly what I wanted. Don't you love it when that happens?

The yarn -- Queensland Collection Uruguay DK -- is a dream. Fiber is 70% merino/20% alpaca/10% silk. Currently sold out at Elann but still very affordable at Webs.) It's sproingy like Cathay and has a good heft to it -- it's warm but still has a nice drape, even cabled. Feels similar to RYC Cashsoft DK. In any event, it's taking great restraint for me to not buy a sweater's worth from Webs. Seriously -- it's that nice, and shows off cables beautifully.

I learned a few things on this project. Most notably: I got really good at cabling without a cable needle. (At least for these cables, cables with a back cross.) I also learned that it can take as long to finish a vest as it does to knit the two pieces because I hate picking up stitches for the edging. Hate hate HATE. (I commented yesterday that I hated picking up stitches more than I hated weaving in ends. That is a huge declaration from me.) But I have to make peace with it -- because I learned that I love the way they look.

All in all, Cambridge was just one recipient of my finishing mojo this weekend. I've been a total whirlwind of energy lately. I can't quite explain it. My mind is racing, I have a zillion little projects I want to do -- and here's the kicker -- I'm *doing* them and not just making mental lists. I've been wanting to redo our office/guest bedroom for about a year. I've been putting it off because it required many labor-intensive steps: clean/sort through all the piles of stuff, patch a couple of small cracks in the wall and ceiling from when the roof leaked, repaint the ceiling, repaint the walls. Then add in new furniture. I got on a tear last weekend, and nibbled at it for several hours most evenings during the week so that by Friday I was ready to paint. So it went from bland ugly white room to this:

Finally, I have a yellow room that I love! It's not completely finished yet, of course -- the new desk is still in a box in the kitchen. That's tonight's project. (I love assembing things! I am a wizard with an allen wrench.)

And, just in case you were wondering, I did NOT find my Denise needles. I did, however, find two US1 Addi Turbos, two row counters and a ball of felted tweed (which means I have enough to make Bloom after all.) I also found JT's Christmas receipts from 1999 and more than $50 in cash tucked among the papers. But no Denises.... they are officially lost. Vaya con dios, Denises.

Status Check

I wish I had a finished Cambridge to show you, but I must confess: I'm holding off to motivate myself to finish some things around the house. Do you ever do that? Keep work on a project as a "reward"? I hate to do it and only pull that trick out when it's really necessary. But I have a schedule with our home office renovation, and Cambridge doesn't factor into it. I will be bringing Cambridge to Late Night tomorrow.... but after that, I have to restrain myself until the office is done. (Hopefully by Saturday or Sunday!)

In the meantime, I had to cast on for a sock -- a little something to carry with me and to knit on late at night. I pulled out the Claudia's Handpainted in the luscious Boot Camp color that bewitched me recently and cast on for Monkey from Knitty. All was good until, three pattern repeats in, I tried it on and it wouldn't go over my heel! I was totally confused: 64 sts on US1 -- the same size as other socks I've knit with Claudia's. Bummer. RIP.

Next up: Pomatomus from Knitty. 72 sts on US1. I got two full repeats in and realized that although it fit over my heel, I really hated the way the yarn was pooling. RIP.

Now what? I confess I was a bit entranced by the Monkey pattern and more than a little miffed that it didn't fit. I wanted to find a way to make it work. What if I went up to US2s?

Ahhhh. That's better. The stitches are a little looser than I prefer, but not too smushy. I figure I'll go down to a size 1 for the heel turn and the foot, when I can play around with the stitch count to get a better fit. The colors are spiral-striping, but it's not too annoying. And I'm halfway through the leg of the first one.

Run-a-Gogo

Yeah, so it's been a good long time since I've updated my ticker. But I've been keeping track of my miles.... it helps that for 2 weekends in a row now I've been dropped off by JT's work and made my way home. That's 7 or 8 miles, depending on the route. And it's really pleasant (except for right by the airport, where it smells like jet fuel.)

So, my grand total so far is 50 miles. That leaves 18 days to get the other 50. I'm not going to lie -- that's ambitious. But I'm going to give it my all and see where that gets me.

Fingers and Toes

So, with the arrival of spring -- any minute now!! -- I've been overtaken by a couple of obsessions. I can't explain them -- how do you explain obsessions? I tried to stave them off. I tried to divert my attentions elsewhere. It didn't work. (I'm stubborn.) So I was left with only one choice -- to surrender.

First, the Knitpicks options needles. I know, I might be the last knitter on the planet to not own these. Everyone raves about how good they are. I'd put off buying another set of interchangeable needles since I had Denise needles. But my Denise needles have been missing for close to a year, so I decided to go ahead with these. (Of course, that means the Denise needles will show up any minute now.)

I haven't had a chance to try them yet -- too busy working on Cambridge, for which Addi Turbos have been deployed. But I have some lace projects queued up, and I'm excited to test them out.

Next up -- some treats for my feet. I have been coveting these shoes since early fall, when I first saw them on someone else.

I tried to talk myself out of them a million times. (And even a few weeks ago was recounting to Holly the state of my obsession with them.) They're ORANGE--I don't usually wear orange on my feet. They're flats, and I prefer a heel. They have a gold accent, and I almost exclusively wear silver. And they are a total splurge that's out of my normal comfort zone. Yet something about them bewitched me. And when shops started selling out, I had to take action. I've been wearing them around the house and they totally delight me. Now I just need a 70-degree day to break them in!

Finally, in a different sort of obsession, I present the finished front of Cambridge.

I rejiggered the pattern to make it a v-neck since the women's version is a scoopneck as written. It was my first time actually converting a pattern like that, and I'm really happy with how it turned out! I particularly love the way the center cable twists off to form the V.

Cambridge is headed for the blocking board this weekend, and then just a few little finishing details to wrap up!

Craving Summer

It's about this time every year that I start to get a horrible case of something -- cabin fever? Seasonal Affective Disorder? Whatever it is, it's something that can only be remedied by warmer weather or a trip to the beach. Since warmer weather won't be here for a while and there are no beach trips on the horizon, I spent yesterday revisiting my pictures from the wedding trip to Belize, and the redesign here is inspired by a fun pic that JT took of a starfish standing in the very shallow water outside our honeymoon cabana. I miss that little cabana, on a tiny spit of land in the middle of the Caribbean, where nothing mattered except your sweetie, your rum supply and your SPF level.

So it didn't help today when I am cruising around the AmEx site and see this: That much-missed island, as a header image. But damn, it's a much better photo of the thing than any of the ones I took!

(Knitting content to return soon.)

Behind Schedule

Ack-- I had grand ambitions of finishing Cambridge this weekend. My plan was something like this: curl up with Cambridge and a movie on Friday, maybe sneak in an hour or two of knitting on Saturday, block Saturday night, finish Sunday.

It didn't quite go as planned.

As it happens, I was a total whirling dervish of little projects and energy this weekend. Finish long-overdue handwritten correspondence! Clean the refrigerator! Sort through closet for clothes to donate! Exercise! Sketch out some knitting designs! Much laundry! Prepare office for renovation!

So.... the sitting in one place for more than 30 minutes and knitting didn't really work out so well, but I've found that when I get these little microbursts of energy, I can be quite productive if I apply myself. I did manage to make it to the armholes, so the end is well within sight. And I've already done the maths to convert the neckline to a v-neck, so all that's between me and a finished Cambridge is... well, a couple hours of sitting-and-knitting time. Maybe I'll be able to sneak it in this week....