Merry Christmas everyone!

I've been a bad blogger lately so this is going to be a long post with lots of pictures. I've been too lazy to upload the pictures to my computer lately. And what's a blog post without pictures? Exactly. So first things first, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We had a great Christmas despite the fact that hubby had to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. He took off Monday and Tuesday and we squeezed in celebration whenever possible. The kids had fun, look at all the toys Santa brought! They seemed happy with their presents :) I, along with the rest of world it seems, got an iPod Nano for Christmas. It's awesome, I've been uploading music for the past week, it's so much fun! And for my knitting goodies, I got an awesome knitting bag & needle holder.... Which also doubles as a baby carrier (pictured with Grammy & Pop-Pop)... A few gifts I purchased for myself... 18 balls of Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patine in the color Alabaster. This yarn is so soft, I can't wait to knit my sweater! I knit up a swatch and the stockinette swatch was right on but the pattern swatch was a little large so I may try it again with smaller needles or knit a larger swatch to be sure. And I've made some progress on Picovoli, I hope it fits! My guage might possibly be a little off but it looks like it'll fit so we'll see. I actually changed from size 4 to size 5 needles after a few rows because I was getting too many stitches per inch. I have to say I love Shine!!! Still not sure about the color, they need more choices! But for $15 how can I complain? We somehow managed to forget to take a picture of our family, which might have something to do with the fact that I'm the one that takes all the pictures! Just the way I like it ;) We'll have to dress up in our Christmas outfits again this weekend and get a picture of us all together. I hope everyone had a happy, relaxing week filled with lots of knitting! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!

Provisional Cast-On

So far I'm not a big fan of the pro visional cast on. I've spent the last hour casting on Picovoli and I'm going to take it out and start over. It seems like the yarn just gets wound around the needles over and over so everything gets looser as I knit and by the time I get to the 2nd round I have a huge gaping hole at the beginning of the round as you can see in the picture. Plus, there were a few spots where the yarn didn't catch the provisional yarn so I'm basically short a few stitches. Ugh, once I get the stitches cast on properly I think it'll be an easy, fun knit. But it's taking forever to get started! I've been searching Google and blogs to find out what size needles others have used with this pattern and Shine yarn for days. (I decided to go with 4s instead of 5s by the way - my very unscientific swatches looked the same to me). I really think I spend more time reading about knitting than actually knitting. Which brings me to my other latest obsession, Koigu. I've also been doing hours of internet research on this yarn and think I'll have to get some. There are so many colors I can't decide which one to buy, especially since it's so hard to see on the computer. I saw a beautiful pink/green colorway on the Brown Sheep blog, which I'll probably end up going with. I was planning on knitting the Cowny socks from Nancy Bush's KOTR but was going to go with a solid color since I'm usually pretty boring with my color choices. But that Koigu yarn is really amazing! I wanted to try Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock but I really just don't like any of the colors. I'll probably either go with a solid color of Lorna's Laces or a wild Koigu colorway. My last (and first) pair of socks didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped so I'm not sure why I even want to make any more socks. They're just not comfortable at all and I kept ripping them out and starting over. It'll probably take me another month or two until I make a decision. The good side of my OCD is that I don't have a yarn stash because it takes me so long to decide on a pattern, yarn, where to buy, etc. Like I said, I spend more time reading about yarn than actually knitting! Ok, I have no idea if any of this post made sense, it's WAY past my bedtime. Goodnight all and good luck with the last minute Christmas preparations!!!

More Knit Picks goodies...

Finally, here is Sharfik blocking on my bed! I decided to add fringe but should have added it AFTER washing it, duh. So the fringe is a little frayed looking. I don't have enough yarn to redo it so I guess I'll trim it and see how it looks. Overall, it turned out really nicely and is so soft. I hope my dad likes it :) And I received my Knit Picks order of Shine. I have 8 balls of Blush and 5 balls of Cream. I'm going to make the Picovoli tee and a little dress for my daughter with these. And finally, this is how my husband gets out of baby duties: I think his theory is if he screws it up badly enough I won't ask him to do it again. I'm on to you, but you're not going to get away with it! You're welcome to feed the baby anytime!

Knits for 2006

Christmas is so stressful, while I have been knitting as usual, I haven't had time to take pictures or blog about it with all of the Christmas preparations. I've pretty much finished Sharfik, I only need to weave in the ends and possibly add fringe. Everyone else thinks I should forget the fringe but for some reason I really like it! I figure I can add it and if he doesn't like it, I can take it off. Of course, I'm sure he would never say he didn't like it, but that's beside the point. I've also started a hat for my son. It's a basic garter stitch rib hat with 2 colors knit out of Cascade Indulgence. The yarn is not at all what I expected looking at it online, it claims to be worsted weight but is much thinner than I thought it would be. The hat looks a little lacey up close but it's actually turning out well. I almost abandoned the project but I'm glad I kept with it. I'm actually relatively new at knitting and still get confused with guage & yarn weights. Here are the projects I have lined up for 2006: 1. Debbie Bliss Cable Hooded Jacket in Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patine (I'm getting the yarn for Christmas). 2. Picovoli by Grumperina knit with Knit Picks Shine in Blush (ahhh, pink - I didn't particularly like any of the colors but I can't really complain for $15 for the entire project). 3. A cute little Picot Dress by Debbie Bliss from Special Knits, also knit with Shine (pink and cream combo). 4. 2 Bunny Rabbits also from Special Knits knit with Cashsoft Aran (blue) and Cashmerino Aran (pink). I have all the yarn for these project which should keep me busy for at least a few weeks, right? LOL! That cable sweater is going to take forever but I'm really excited, I haven't actually knit anything for myself yet besides my first FO which was a scarf made with Lion Brand Homespun, which I actually wore today for the first time because it was freezing! I'll try to post an offical FO post for the Accordion sweater tomorrow - I finally got the zipper sewn on properly and I washed and "blocked" it (I use the term lightly, I'm not sure laying it flat on top of my dryer counts).

I hate sewing!

I'm really not good at finishing projects. Clearly, I am not very good at sewing either. I was kind enough to take these photos before ripping the zipper out for your pure entertainment. I tried to hand sew the zipper on my son's Accordion sweater and it didn't turn out so well. Here you can see how the stripes don't exactly line up. And the zipper is a little too low at the bottom. Plus, I used dark green thread because it was the only non-white thread I have. Pretty sad, I know.

Oh the weather outside is frightful....

But snowmen are so delightful! I can't take any credit for it though, Pop-Pop stopped by to shovel our driveway and build a snowman! I just posed for the picture. It turned out great, don't you think? We only got an inch or two overnight and most of it has melted already. I LOVE the snow but apparently I'm in the minority on this one. It's so nice to have my son play outside in the snow while I knit, er....clean. And it looks so pretty! Here is an early Christmas present from hubby. We have been redecorating and my desk was just this huge ugly eyesore in our living room so we happened to see this beautiful secretary at Pier 1 and couldn't pass it by. I love green and the size is just perfect since I have a laptop and no longer need a computer desk. Plus, now that I have less room I'll have to do my filing more often, which is definitely a good thing. And for more redecorating fun, I finished another curtain for the living room. It needs some shaping but you get the idea. 2 down, just 3 more to go. And here is dad's Shafrik. Only a few more inches to go and then some fringe and I'll be done. And I don't have any other Christmas gifts to knit so it looks like I'll be done in plenty of time. I knit gifts for my mother-in-law, brother-in-law and father. I decided to just make gifts one at a time as an idea came to me and I'll knit for different people next year. It's much less overwhelming that way.

Anyone want a dog? Warning....no knitting content!

I am so sick of our dog I don't even know where to start. How about a year ago when we moved here. We have a 3/4 acre lot so instead of trying to put a fence around the gigantic yard, we decided to get an electric fence for the dogs (notice I said dogs, we used to have 2). Casey, the dog we have now, got shocked by the fence and wouldn't go outside and was depressed overall by the move. Well the other dog, Greta, didn't get shocked at all (not sure why, we think her fur was too thick for the collar, plus she didn't really care to escape). So Greta saw her chance to become top dog and decided to take Casey on. They had lived together for years, since Greta was a puppy, and never fought at all. So, they got into a few fights that ended with blood and it was obvious they were not going to get along until one of them gave in or died. In fact, hubby was bit in the arm at one point (not trying to separate them because we know better, he just happened to be in the way when a fight started). So it was obvious, especially with kids in the house, that one of the dogs had to go. Casey was better with our son so we kept her and my parents reluctantly decided to take Greta. Anyway, so the electric fence thing worked for a while and then my wonderful FIL did a few home improvement projects with his back-hoe and broke the wire in a few places so the fence stopped working. Casey was fine for a while because she didn't realize she could escape but once she realized it wasn't working she started escaping. We actually live a few houses away from the ILs so she usually ended up over there. So this summer we decided to get a real fence. With the kids and new neighbors we had a few more reasons to get a fence so it seemed like a good idea. Ok, so we're up to about $5,500 to keep a dog in our yard. My well intentioned FIL installed the fence which was a MAJOR PITA. There were a few places that were a little too high above the ground and she somehow managed to get under the fence. We thought we blocked it all but she still escapes. Just a few weeks ago the dumb dog ran out the front door and when hubby went to get her, none other than the dog catcher was out (looking for our obnoxious Beagle neighbor dog, no doubt) and had her. She had a major attitute too and said she's in our neighborhood all the time and will keep an eye out for her, etc. So anyway, I've had it with this dog and don't know how much I can take. She ran off today before I was heading to my parents and I let the ILs know to look for her and she never showed up at their house. It was around 30 degrees out today too. And when I came home she was sitting in front of the garage ready to come in! She eats my sons food all the time, which I realize is just what dogs do, but I can't take it anymore! It seems like no matter what we do we can't keep the dog from escaping. I guess the moral of this story is if I ever mention getting another pet, remind me of this story. Grrr.........

I'm back!

Our internet connection hasn't been working for the past week, it's been horrible! I'm so glad to have it working again, I have 89 blog entries to read in Bloglines! I've been so bored this week, but I did actually get the house clean which is important I guess. I'm also about 3/4 of the way done with my dad's scarf. That's actually all I've been working on and I don't have any idea what I'll knit next. I may have time to knit more Christmas gifts but I don't really have anything in mind. I may take a short knitting break and get the house & presents ready for Christmas. Anyway, I'll post more soon with some pictures! I just wanted to let you all know I'm still alive, I didn't realize how addicted I am to the Internet (and knitting blogs in particular) until this week. Ugh, I need to get a life.