Busy

Been sick, got a raise, worked like an ox, enjoyed DH's b-day, got DS registered (second semester), got sick again. In other words, not too much knitting going on here. Now I am suffering from eye strain, relapse of bronchitis, messed up hormones, and a persistent GI problem. Sigh. Never a dull moment :)

I am making (very slow) progress on Celestine:


The Kauni rainbow yarn is really fun; I keep wanting to make the next star point to see what the next color variation looks like knit up!! And it's a good size project to haul back and forth to work.

As opposed to Hemlock Ring, which is in it's last 3 rows and rather bulky at this point. I messed up a YO row 5 rows back, and have been trying to rip back only a section to fix it instead of unraveling 300 something stitches x 5 rows, but now that I've spent 2-1/2 hours doing that, I realize that nothing but ripping out will suffice. I can't stand it, I'm so close to being finished! Oh well, I have been enjoying it during football games....Maybe it'll get me through the Super Bowl :)

I'm learning something from both projects, which is fun. I've heard people say you can't fix lace--oh, now I see why! :( You can tell I'm an "experiential" learner!!

And Celestine calls for "pick up and knit" to add on each star point, but when I do that I get a ridge at the join (red arrows in next photo.) I like it much better if I just pick up the stitches around, and THEN knit them on the first row. It looks so much cleaner :) See the black arrows in the next photo:


See how the black arrows are pointing out seams with nice smooth joins?! (Click to see it better!) This needs some blocking for sure, but I think you get the idea.

Won't be doing much internet this weekend if my eyes don't calm down. I'll probably just refill my antibiotics and sleep. Happy Saturday y'all!

Sincerely,
Aim the inundated.

what I got for Christmas

He likes to play in the snow!



I got this fun calendar for Christmas from DD. Will be nice to flip through these daily while at work this year! Not that I need anymore project ideas, but it's nice to keep the inspiration going!!

Wow, I just spent about 4 hours on Ravelry (1/1/08), with breaks to move the laundry along, and eat. I can just blow a whole day on that website! My brain is spinning right now. I must get off the 'puter b/c DH is going to have a hissy if I don't give him a turn :()

Again, Happy New Year.

Okay, now it's 1/2/08. I just worked all day again, what a workhorse I can be. I love my job right now.

I am very happy these days. I think the satisfaction of moving through the holidays, being with family and friends, and having well-deserved time off really makes a difference! Plus all the new knitting and surfing time!!!

I am working away on the Hemlock ring. Will be knitting on that tonight. But what has really got me going is the Celestine from Norah Gaughan (pattern on Berocco's website): I cast on last night in my Kauni rainbow yarn, and I'm really excited to be making it in this. I don't know what it will look like in this yarn, but I'm having fun using it! And it's a nice break from the boring color of Hemlock :)

I had a brainstorm too. I really want to use my Jojoland Rhythm yarn for the Klaralund sweater! It is self-striping and a really neat colorway I think would look very well in that pattern. I've been sitting on it wondering what to do with it for a number of months...I love brainstorms!

Well, back to the knitting board. Oh, and by the way, I need to get started on my HK knitting pattern for the KAL blog! The pattern came out Christmas Eve, but I am somewhat behind :)

My Kauni arrived!!!

This was my last internet splurge for a while. I couldn't stop myself. But even though I had promised me to be done with internet knit purchases, I needed to get my Kauni yarn. Ohh, am I glad I did.


It came in the mail today, from Denmark (here). Kinda pricey shipping, but when you see the beautiful colors of the yarn coming out of the package at you, and you show it to non-knitters and even they are oooh-ing and aaaah-ing, then you know it was worth it! Oh this yarn is spectacular!!


So. I'm done. I have so many projects queued up to go "next" it is not even funny. I want to be a housewife again (Why is there that conundrum, that you must work to buy the yarn, but when you work there is not enough time to knit the yarn. But if you don't work, there's no way you'd be buying Kauni yarn from Denmark and having it sent to you for $30 in shipping...?)


This yarn ain't goin' nowhere until I knit it. So there's my answer to the conundrum: it's safely in my stash where it belongs, until that victorious day when I can pull it out and start knitting with it!

This yarn makes me wax poetic!

For my future reference:
My Kauni came in small balls, which apparently has changed. Their other colorways still come in the larger balls, but Rainbow EQ only comes smaller. The bummer is, I cannot see the progression of color on the small balls, and the order in which colors change. So, by looking at other people's photos of their WIPs and large balls of Rainbow colorway, I can see the stripe progression will go like this: ROYGBIV.

Common sense rules the day ;0)

Something else I need to show you: I had to buy this book at Barnes & Noble the other day. It made me laugh (and I am such a cookbook collector, this came home with me):


Yes, it is the Twinkies cookbook. You can COOK with Twinkies! Whodathunk?!

Look at the Twinkie wedding cake, haa haa haaaaa:


And Twinkie sushi is a scream:


I love this book!

I have pics of the Dulaan scarf progress, but will upload them later. Have a nice Sunday, everybody!

Ravelry wait

Wow, this is really cool (pattern here), and what a great idea to do a fair isle with this type variegated/striping yarn!!! Nifty. I've heard someone drooling over this yarn in the past, but forgot about it in all my yarn-induced madness.

I finally gave in and put my name in on Ravelry waiting list:

Get a load of my place # on the waiting list! I might as well just wait until it becomes open to the public!!! (Knew I shoulda put my name on the list a few weeks ago when I first heard of it, heh!)

This is a really pretty sweater that Annie knit up based on a Knitty.com pattern. She did a great job, makes me want one myself!