I'm Really Not Whining

I just spent the last two days un-knitting, stitch by stitch, down to my colossal mistake. As much as it completley sucked, I have to say I am incredibly proud of that fact that I fixed it rather than just say "screw it" and move on, which is what I too often do. I am now still at about 19 out of 28 inches, plus 4 side panels to knit, so it's not looking like a gold medal is in my future. Yet for some reason I am still hopeful that I might have this done by Sunday. (As you all chuckle to yourselves....) How's that for Olympic spirit?!?

What better way to spend President's Day....

Than cleaning up the stash with Little Man? I knew that knitting on my Olympics project was not an option, as any knitting done around him can't be that involved or risk tampering with. My yarn closet has really been bothering me lately so I thought we'd go far it. Sorry for the crooked picture. For some reason my program wasn't cooperating and wouldn't turn "before" around, so just turn your head and you'll get a great view of what we were dealing with. An impressive mess, huh?

Little Man was surprisingly into it. He took the job of emptying all yarn out onto the couch very seriously and did most of it himself (God love him, the kid loves to clean). We managed to get 2/3rd's emptied before he started to lose interest. That was when I had near disaster, because he decided that the yarn on the couch would make a great bed, and this is what I ended up with while I was busy rearranging my shelves. See the beginnings of the tangles? That is where he was trying to wrap himself up in all the yarn, but honestly, can you blame him?



Here is the after. All organized by fiber and weight, heavier wools on the left, cottons, novelty, fingering weight and sock yarns on the right. I managed to put all my spinning fiber behind the shelves. I have to say, I'm really pleased about how it turned out. Little Man held out nearly to the end and I only needed to bring out one hour of PBS kids at the end of the afternoon so I could finish. I swear, the only thing that would grab his attention away from his "yarn bed" was an episode of "Arthur." I tried...



After a great day, I had my first big Olympic wipe out, something akin to the ice dancers the other night (of which I blame them completely. I can't count and watch all that drama!) After knitting for two hours last night I held up the shawl and a good two inches down I saw a hole. Somehow I had knit together two extra stitches and an extra yarnover. I have to say, I have never had to take something out this complicated. Usually I have no problem frogging something if I can just rip it out, but I know if I do that I'll never get it back on the needles, so tonight will be dedicated to tinking, which I'll probably mess up too as I'll be watching skating and that is when I seem to make mistakes. But like all the athletes say, it's not over until you cross the finish line!

Progress, but not enough

Total length of center panel: 13 inches.

Goal to be completed by tomorrow: 28 inches.

Chance that Little Man will give his mama about 10 unterrupted hours of knitting between today and tomorrow: 1 in 1,000,000,000.

-10

Minus ten, that's me right now as I am ten inches behind where I should be to stay on track for my Olympic goal. I was hoping to have all 28 inches of my center panel done by this weekend, so I could do the side panels next week and then sew it all together by the weekend. But as of today I've only got 12 inches done. I can knit 4 rows in about 15 minutes, but what slows me down most is actually trying to watch the Olympics while I'm knitting. Then I forget if I'm on row 1 or 3 and have to figure out which one to start with because I'm having a hard time reading the stitches on this pattern. If I didn't actually like the Olympics I'd be getting much more done!

Slow Olympic start and more blog woes

So with not quite as much of a bang as some of my fellow bloggers have started out, my Olympic knitting challenge is off!! I had a rough beginning Friday. Little Man got to stay up late and watch the opening ceremonies (because what little kid wants to miss guys with fire coming off of their heads?) but that also meant too much distraction to really start much knitting. He finally tuckered out for bed around 9:30 so when Matt put him down I got started.

Unfortunately, I hadn't swatched prior to Friday and then thought I'd better do it just to work out the stitch pattern. Lucky I did. It took me five tries to get it right. First I had trouble with my new Addi's and the Rowan 4-ply merino I am using. The yarn was slipping all over the place and I got really frustrated. So I switched to bamboo which was just too slow, and went back to the Addi's again. I got more used to the Addi's, but then kept losing the right number of stitches. On the fifth try I realized that I wasn't doing one of the yarnovers right, fixed it, and cast on. My Heirloom Silk (merino) Baby Shawl from Erika Knight's "Knitting for Two" is off!!!



I showed Matt the picture of the shawl in the book and how much I had done. He's such a great coach. I asked him if he thought I'd get it done. His reply, "No way." (Not only is he honest he knows me too well) Then he asked me, "So how many other knitters do you think are sitting around freaking out about this like you are?" (This was after the fourth swatch and many unpleasant words). I'm guessing quite a few of you!!

I'm feeling better now that I've gotten a start, but this is going to take some late nights. I figure the center panel is 28 inches, so I need to be doing about 4 inches a night to get done soon enough to start the four side panels. I've got four inches done in three days, and that was over a weekend. But, I've got the hang of the pattern now and it actually goes quickly as long as I'm not interrupted or falling asleep.

As for the blog woes, I have to ask you fellow bloggers for some ideas. With the new computer, I've totally got the picture thing down now. My problem? The side panel. It is taunting me with its plainess and totaly lack of anything other than the Knitting Olympics button. I tried to add the Team Wales button, but again, can't figure out the picture attachment to the link (Nate, where are you? I can't bug him again, I mean the guy gave us a free computer and he already showed me once.) I just can't figure out how to get the stupid picture to be on the link. I also can't figure out how to get new sections put up there. I really would like to have a seperate list of blogs, as well as a list of WIP and FO. I have read over Blogger a million times and can't find any help, and the html sites just make me feel like I've had way too many cups of coffee right now (and I'm off of caffiene). But I know it can't be that
hard, as everyone else seems to have it figured out. So, I give. As stupid as I feel asking this question, where is the secret "How to put things on your sidebar" page? I know it's out there somewhere!

Now, as Matt just said, "Shouldn't you be knitting right now?" Yup.

No stinkin' batteries

Okay, so you don't get to see the tam tonight. My bettery supply for the camera is out. I love having a digital camera but I have to say I can't believe how this thing sucks that batteries down. We've got to get some rechargables.

Not that much happened with the tam. I washed and blocked it and now it is pretty much the same size as before. I hate to do it, but I actually think I am going to rip out a FO, which is really depressing for a couple of reasons. I've been trying to find time to knit myself a hat this winter and I never seem to get to it. I finally get one done and it doesn't fit. I'd dive right back into it, but two things are in the way: dishcloths and the olympics.

The dishcloths are for my brother, who through ups and downs in the real estate world, has finally bought his first house. We are very excited about this as he'll be living just five minutes from us rather than twenty-five, so we all get to see much more of each other. But he closes already next week, which means a housewarming gift is in order. As much as I hate kniting them (let's face it, dishcloths are not exciting) the boy needs some dishcloths. We had Christmas at his house this year, and my mom actually called me and said, "Can you bring a dishcloth with you when you come over?" This cracks me up, and puts me into big sister mode. So part of his housewarming gift has to be dishcloths. Right now everything has stopped so I can knit them up, because I only have until Friday before before they need to be done.

Why Friday? The opening ceremony of the olympics starts, which means I am off and running on the Heirloom Silk Baby Shawl. I've getting worried that I've bit off more than I can chew with this one but I guess only time will tell.

Too small Tam

I'm getting into a knitting funk. I'm glad the Olympics are starting soon, maybe that will get me moving!!

On a whim this weekend, I knit up a Tam. I started it Friday, took it to our playgroup's monthly knitting gathering, and then ripped it out as the yarnovers were all crooked. But I started again that night, whipped through it and finished it off last night. Only two misplaced yarnovers this time, but too far back that I decided not to worry about it. I figured they weren't that noticeable so I just finished up.

Of course, when I tried it on, it fit more like a stocking cap rather than a tam. Which might have been all right, except Matt looked at me and said, "Do you know it has a bunch of holes in it?" So much for my strategically placed yarnovers in nice neat lines (minus two, of course.) I pointed this out to him but he just gave me a look that meant he still wasn't quite sure about the hat, but I don't know if I can stand ripping it out. I have never ripped anything out completely, maybe it is time. But first, I'll try blocking and stretching a bit to see if loosening it up helps. I'll post a photo tomorrow (I can't seem to find it on my hard drive right now) and we'll see if it stays or goes.

Three Strikes....

So the finals are graded, but this hasn't been much of a week for knitting. Long days at work and I keep falling asleep early, so all I really have is my pathetic sock report from the weekend.

I had planned ot work on my first pair of socks on two circular needles, using the Columbine Peaks pattern from Cat Bohrdi's book. I had done the ribbing last summer and everythig was fine, but once I got started again I had two problems. One, I didn't count and messed up the pattern, and two, I'm not too crazy about using these needles. They are Crystal Palace and the joins just aren't that smooth, so it's taking a lot of effort to switch back and forth. So they went back in the bag. Great yarn though. It's Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn.


I went on to Little Man's socks, to match Mama's socks (I'd better not hear "these are tickly" this time around! :-)They were coming along nicely until he decided to break one of the needles in half (what better way to get his Mother's attention, right?) So they went back in the bag as well.


On to pair number three. I can't find my pattern now, but these were the biggest success over the weekend. It's a Fiber Trends pattern, I can at least remember that much.I'm quite proud of how it turned out. But then on our drive home we ended up leaving late and this is not a sock to knit in the dark, so I sat for three hours doing nothing;it nearly drove me nuts. I had gone through all my backup knitting and had nothing left.So much for good travel planning!


All in all it was a great weekend and the Little Man had fun with all the family, I simply lost my knitting groove and have not been able to get in back. Maybe this weekend, we'll see...

On a final note, I have to give a HUGE thanks to my brother-in-law, who not only gave my html lessons this weekend, but a LAPTOP!!!! (We'll just call him the used computer-fixer-upper genius. Nate, you really do rock and I promise we (meaning Matt)won't break this one!) I can actually use Blogger now as intended, meaning no more outdated Mac 9.2. We're all Windows now, which makes Matt incredibly happy but also unwilling to share; I nearly had to rip this thing from his hands, and now it's way past bedtime for me. I do feel sorry for my Imac just sitting there, it looks lonely. I keep telling it it is not it's fault that the internet world just doesn't want to support it anymore. Now I'm rambling which proves it is WAY past bedtime now.