Lace Blouse

I would like to share my latest FO with you. That's right...I've finished something...and I'm not so humble that I'm not 100% proud of myself.



FO SPECS:
Pattern: Lace Blouse by Jennie Atkinson from the book Romantic Style.
Yarn: Rowan 4-ply Cotton
Started: 6.07!!!!
Finished: 11.28.08
Modifications: None to speak of. I have not added buttons. I kind of like it without them. I may add them later, but there is certainly no rush.

This damned thing (and I am comfortable calling it that. It likes it) took me forever to finish. That border around the neck and front basically killed me. It seemed like no matter how many times I estimated that I had only three or so repeats left, there were four more to go. Now that it is done, I am so happy that I put myself through the torture of finishing it. Good job, me.

Here is the Ravelry Link for you spiffy Ravelers out there. :)

Now for some WIP talk. Max's Cobblestone is about 10 inches long, at 16 I put it off on scrap yarn and start the sleeves. He's pretty much accepted that this thing will take me forever to finish. My snowdrop cardigan is moving along as well, but very slowly. I'm still finishing the second sleeve, then I have to do cuffs on both sleeves, the pockets, seaming of peices, and picking up around the whole darned thing for a collar and border. So, while I wish I could say I'm nearly finished as I usually do when finishing the sleeves, I am nowhere near finishing it. It might take another month at the rate I'm going now. :/

School has got me pretty busy. This week I have to work on a take-home final exam ("take-home test" in graduate school usually means a gazillion times more work intensive and time consuming than an in-class test. Sigh. I had two weeks to work on it (it's due next Monday), but I went to Saint Louis for Thanksgiving and, of course, did not hit the books. Not even once. I must study for the final in my other class (which will be on next week's Wednesday), write one more paper, and read a couple-hundred page book for class discussion (by tomorrow, I might add). I'm not complaining, not yet anyway. I just know that I won't get much knitting in until finals are finally over. Then, I will become a knitting and spinning fool!

That's right--a fool!

A couple of things...

...Monday was St. Distaff's Day and I spent a large chunk of my time spinning up some merino in "celebration." I have finished the singles, which I allowed to rest a bit on the niddy noddy and I have begun plying them. It is slow going and I don't have any pictures for you yet, but I can show you a picture of my first mistake:


I don't know why I decided I should take it all off the niddy noddy before winding into a ball...stupid me. ((oh, and I know plying such fine singles from one center pull ball is not a good idea, but it's the only way I know how to do it at this point and I have my techniques to keep it all from tangling too much...))

I have not been knitting much, mainly spinning. I'm loving this spinning business lately...and I've been toying with a few other hobbies too...which are related to my love of books, writing, and list making.

I can't wait to ply all these singles and move on to spinning up my Cormo roving!! It's so soft and smells so very sheepy. It even still has little bits of vegetable matter in it...and you know what?...I'm not removing it. It stays. In all its sheepy wonder. Can you tell I'm stoked? lol I will be spinning a bulkier yarn with it because my spindle is just too heavy for the the finer yarns (as I learned with my spinning WIP). Besides, the Cormo is so soft that I am sort of getting gah-gah over the idea of making something really squishy out of it. I want to eventually spin up enough for a sweater, but I will need to make a few trips to the fiber place to get more. It's undyed, so no problem with that dye-lot nonsense. I may decide to dye it myself after it's all spun up, but possibly not.

All this fiber talk leads me to spindle dreaming...and, brace yourself, wheel dreaming too. I want some of these, and one of these, and this one too. And someday, I really really want to get this little eye-sore.

My Butterfly Mobius looks like this:


My Purple Lace Blouse looks like it did last time I showed it to you. lol

Ok, enough. You're all bored. I made Onigiri:


I'm so in love with them...tasty tasty...

Promises, Promises

Like I said I would, I will share a few of my "New Year's Resolutions" with the masses here, which may be a recipe for disaster, but I don't find myself caring too much about that. I won't share them all because, let's face it, the list is up to 16 items give or take and I don't want to take up too much of your time with non-knitting related promises. So, here are my Knitting Resolutions of 2008!

1. Knit a sweater from a Japanese Pattern (I already have one picked out and have figured out possible yarn substitutes...and it won't cost me more that $40 to pull off...God, I love knitpicks!)

2. Knit two sweaters for myself (the Japanese Pattern Sweater can count as one of the two. The other will likely be the Bridesmaid Wrap from Wedding Knits by Suss Cousins. I bought the yarn for it, but unfortunately left it in the STL when we returned from the winter holidays. I won't be able to start it until my mom gets around to mailing it to me, which could be on Monday and could be in 2009...)

3. Knit two sweaters for Max (Cobblestone and something else. I'm all torn up inside between Jared and Beau, both from Vintage Knits)

4. Knit one sweater for my Mother (she likes one out of the most recent Knit Simple and it suggests Patons Classic Merino yarn, which means it will be inexpensive)

5. Spin on a regular basis

6. Abandon the Park and Draft method of spinning

7. Knit a sweater OF MY OWN DESIGN (this was a resolution of last year that I did not accomplish...on to round two!)

8. Focus more on lace projects

Well, I think that's enough for now. I would like to add that I have already checked number 6 off of the list! It just clicked a few days ago and I've been spinning like mad ever since!! I would also like to mention that I have resolved to knit 6 sweaters this year (if you count the one I'm supposed to design myself). It seems like a lot, but there are 12 months in a year. So, I have two months to finish one sweater. Considering that the average time I think it takes to knit a sweater is one month (if I don't loose my focus/interest and throw it aside for months), I see no problem with this. No problem...right?

Speaking of sweaters getting tossed aside and forgotten about, I am trying very hard not to do that with my Purple Lace Blouse (again). I am working on the borders now and have finished the fronts and back. I'm finding it difficult to work on because of having to purl two together through the back loops. I have done it many times before, but not with cotton. Let me tell you, it is a chore. My hands start to hurt after a while, which does not make me want to knit on it in a semi-psychotic fashion. Who knows, this little thing might take two more months to finish after all.


In true crazy fashion, I started a new WIP (I'm up to 5 now):


It's the Butterfly Mobius from The Knitters Book of Yarn. I LOVE it so far. I think it is going to be very nice and comfy. I'm even using old stash yarn!! It's Regia Bamboo Color sock yarn that I've had for nearly two years! I was going to try to make socks with it again (my first attempt was a miserable failure), but I've decided that I'm not going to be bothering with socks too much in the New Year. I do want to knit some thigh highs, but other than that, I just don't feel the urge anymore.

While in Saint Louis I worked the Swallowtail Shawl up to the nupps section and it has been sitting in its little baggie ever since. I learned nupps and got quite comfortable with them in my half of an Estonian Garden Stole, but for some reason I can't bring myself to start the nupps section on the Swallowtail yet. It's probably a wise decision considering the woes with the Purple Lace Blouse. Take the difficult and tedious projects one at a time....one at a time...

Let's see, what else? I baked a cake...didn't take pictures, though. I'm starting yoga (after one lesson, my muscles ached and I had a headache the next day from the muscle pain...it should go away once I practice more). I think I'm going for a lesson tomorrow morning...

That's all for now. I want to get back to my spinning and make some progress there before Max awakes from the dead (practically).