This crazy life

Oh blog. I neglect you so! It's been a little over a month since my last blog post and I have had a lot going on in my life. Lets start with the yarn!

So I have been pecking away at night on my Nemo's Comfort blanket. I am up to about 47 inches across and it is about 80 inches in length. This thing is a beast! I have been working on it off and on for over a year. Each color is three rows - and each row is around 240 double crochets on a size H hook. This is in cotton yarn so it will be machine washable and dry-able. But I seriously need to decide where it is going to go so I know what size it will be!

Other things in my life includes be taking a nice tumble down the steps to my basement. THAT was unpleasant! Let me start this story by saying this has been an insanely cold and snowy winter. The day I took my tumble was another really cold day and we had some good snow out. We came back from the grocery store and I was wearing thick winter boots and my thick winter coat and my boots were covered in snow. I was carrying two 12 packs of soda in one arm and one 12 pack in the other. My wet boot hit the painted step and next thing I know I was laying half way down the steps in some serious pain! I had bruises on my butt and back like you would not believe and motion in my neck was limited for about two weeks. I knew where each stair hit! So that was pretty awful. It took me a bit to get back to human after that, and I still had my full time job and four classes at school to contend with while trying to recover. Needless to say I was pretty tired, and a little cranky to boot!

Here is a picture of our backyard the weekend I took my tumble. We had a pretty good snowstorm the night before and my Husband has been blowing paths in our yard so the dog can access her zone in the back where she takes care of her doggy needs. We have several feet of snow pack right now and it's just been a challenge this year to function!

This past week I had my final exam for my PowerPoint class. I am so happy to have that off my plate! I actually found the classwork fairly simple - I like PowerPoint and don't think it's all that challenging to use so I enjoyed the class for the most part. But now that it is over I feel like I will have better balance in my life. That's one less class to attend every week, one less weekly quiz to study for, one less text I have to read and turn in an assignment for every week.... So I am pretty excited to have just a touch more free time.

School overall has been going very well and I am pleased with my progress in my classes and the roads I am forging into my next career path.

And that is about it for my world right now. School. Job. Homework. A little bit of yarn. A little bit of sleep. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Hot Child in the City

 

• Project Name: Hot Child in the City
• Pattern Name: Cabled Hot Water Bottle Cosy by Alexis Layton. 
• {This is a Free pattern on Ravelry found HERE.}
• Yarn:125 yards of  Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky in the color Wine. 
• Needles: Size 10 double point needles and a cable needle 

My Ravelry project page can be found HERE for anyone interested in greater detail.

I have been wanting to knit a hot water bottle cozy for many years. What could be more comforting then a hot water bottle with a hand knit cozy? So I dug through patterns on Ravelry and came across this one. The pattern is written to have a tie at the top to keep the cozy secure on the bottle, but I preferred the ribbed turtle neck look to the tie down look. I also think having no tie is just more practical for us. Nothing to get lost or separated.

 

The pattern calls for 5 repeats of the cable pattern, but I had a smaller hot water bottle than the one in the pattern, so I did the cable pattern 3.5 times which brought me to the top of the bottle's body. Then I did the k2,p2 ribbing until I was to the to the top of the spout of the bottle, did a knit row as a kind of turn row, and then switched my ribbing to p2,k2 so it would lay nice.

 

I kept ribbing until I had the length of the neck/spout area covered and was back to the body of the bottle, then bound off in the ribbing to keep it nice and neat. 

I am really happy with how it turned out. The yarn is a ball of Knit Picks that was was in my stash for years, so I was able to Stash Bust to make this as well - so that felt good too. 

And I think I may be giving my bottle a test run today. It's so cold out that all the schools in the state are shut down and my boss called me last night and told me I could stay home if I wanted too today. (Uh, yeah I want to stay home!) So it's nearly 11:00 and I am still in my jammies playing on the Internet. Not a bad day after all!

Revived Socks

 

I cast these on in December of 2011 and then apparently stuffed them in a bag and completely forgot about their existence. Fast forward two years and I am doing some cleaning and organizing, and hark, what is this? I honestly do not remember casting these on and working on them, but I have notes on Ravelry stating I did (apparently cast on while watching The Biggest Loser).  So I decided to quick finish them up so I could wear them this weekend. Monday is supposed to be so cold here that the governor of Minnesota closed all schools in the entire state for that day. Before the Wind Chill is factored in they say a high temp of -10°F and I have heard colder than that on some channels. Yikes. So having a paid of bulky wool house socks sounds mighty fine to me!

 

 

• The Pattern: Socks 101 by Larissa Brown from the book "Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together"
• The Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky in the color Elderberry Wine. I used just under 1 skein for the pair of socks, 115.0 yards (105.2m).
• Needles: US 10 - 6.0 mm double point needles
• Knit a ♀ Medium
• My notes on Ravelry can be found HERE.

 

As you can see by looking at the toe construction, I decreased more on one toe than the other. I think I got confused about which size I was working on and followed the directions for the small sock on the first sock. When I finished it I was not thrilled with the toe, but I thought Well, if I make these again I will change the toe construction - because I am not an elf and my feet aren't shaped like an arrow.

Then I finished the second sock and realized it was a Jenny oops - meaning I fudged up that first sock. So I have a pair of house slippers with wonky toes and I know that if I make them again I need to REALLY watch that toe construction.

I wore these all last night and my feet were toasty warm in them. When it gets cold like this you can just feel the cold seeping in through the walls and floor of the house, so I am pretty sure these will get some good wear for the next few days/weeks.

If I were to change anything, I think I would make the ribbing much higher (which would make this a two skein project in this yarn) and I would watch the toe construction so I didn't get wonky arrow toe on one foot next time. I might also try an eye of partridge heel on it as I am sort of in love with the eye of partridge heel.

Pleased to have a wearable garment and to have cleared up a long lost WIP! Win!

Let it snow!

Oh the weather outside is frightful... but my dog loves it! My hubby ran her around in the backyard while it was still coming down full force. I would be shocked if we aren't at almost a foot of snow at this point. And it's still coming down. It looks like we could get about 15 inches when it finally stops. THAT is a lot of snow!

I am happy it hit today instead of Monday - but I am still going to have to drive to work on some pretty yucky roads. Not. Fun. I am sure I will wonder, in the morning, when I am clearing huge piles of snow off our truck, why I live in Minnesota. But for today - snug in my house with candles lit and the snow dropping down - it's quite lovely.

And maybe this will kick-start my Christmas Spirit! I have been feeling a bit Grinchy, so this might help.

And now I must go and shovel. (Score one more for the Grinch!)

It's Just a Triangle - Shawl

FINALLY - I took the time to take pictures of my It's Just a Triangle - Shawl which I actually finished a little over a week ago. Of course I had to wait until the temp was 93 F (33.89C) so .... Yeah. Check out one very warm gal trying to look like she wasn't feeling like a pork roast out in the sun.

I am very happy with how it turned out. The top of the triangle is almost exactly my height and the spine covers my torso nicely.

This was yarn that I originally had designated for a dog sweater for Emma. It did NOT work out and it went for a nice long swim in the frog pond. Now it is resurrected as a shawl for me!

I foresee myself wearing this in the morning's when I have to go outside with Emma and I am still pajama clad. Like this morning when we got up at 3:30 in the morning and the sirens were going off and a storm was rolling in. Miss Emma was shaking and didn't want to go out - but she needed to go out! So out I went in my pj's, robe and crocks. The bummer about robes is they collect grass and water on the bottom edge - NOT so with shawls! So I am pretty excited about this.

AND it's acrylic so I can throw it in the washer and dryer with no issues! WIN!

The pattern is really easy and you can use pretty much any yarn. Wonderful stash buster! The pattern is called "It's just a triangle - Shawl" and it's free on Ravelry or you can go to Laughing Purple Goldfish Blog and find the pattern there. I love the multi colored ones!

Now I am off to make myself another Flatout Pizza and a nice Salty Dog! :)

Discombobulated in a good way

Saturday is almost over and I feel like I have been running around like a crazy girl! I started out my day by sleeping almost three hours later than I do on a normal day, which is SUPER awesome. Sleep is so important and I never seem to get enough, so I love Saturday mornings with no alarm clock! But of course I feel all discombobulated as I am off my normal schedule. Still - hard to complain about being well rested!

I did my weight in and I dropped just over 2 pounds this week which makes me happy. I lost the weight I gained last week and a little more too, so WIN! I had a nice Zumba work-out after my weight in and then I took Emma outside in between storms and snapped a few pictures.

I went over to inspect our Strawberries and saw a flash of red! Yup! We have berries! Most of them are still green, but we have a few that are very red! I am going to leave them for my hubby to find. Strawberries are his crack. 

Our Peony bush is JUST about ready to pop. I suspect before next weekend we will have some really pretty blooms. The flowers are so pretty - but they have almost no odor which makes me sad. The scent of a peony is one of my favorite things. These are actually from Tom's grandma who lived here up until she died when Tom was only 1 or 2 years old. It's nice having plants that have been in the family for generations. When this gets too big for the bed I will split it and give half to Tom's mom.

Not long after I played Photographer we had another severe storm roll in  - this one has some nice sized hail along with heavy heavy rain. You can see the white chunk on our table on the deck along with the heavy rain drops making a splash. It's just been a wet wet day. Which means tomorrow when it is in the 90F/32C temps again it will be a steam bath. Yuck. We still have no air, but at least now we have the ability to open the windows in the living room. We had to take a hammer to one of the storms in order to get it out, but it is out and we can get better air circulation now. We should have done that 9 years ago when we bought this house. Yeah. Nine years of not being able to open the windows in our living room. I guess we just needed two really hot miserable weeks with barely any sleep to motivate us.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy your weather - what ever you may be having!

Hot and Heavy with a Flower on Top

I weighed in this morning and it wasn't very pretty. Not surprising - but not pretty. I put on 1.5 lbs this last week and actually I am pretty happy it wasn't more! I did half the work outs I normally do and I had a lot of food that is not really on my diet. (Eat more + Work out less = weight gain.) So this next week I will try and bring it around the other way. (Eat BETTER! + WORK OUT MORE! = Not feeling like a sausage in my jeans!)

This week has been a bit stressful. We had to get our hot water heater replaced which cost a pretty penny, and our central air conditioning stopped working as well. Normally if your Air is going to die May is a pretty good month for that, as our average temp is 70F (21.1C). However this week has been REALLY warm here in Minnesota and we broke the record high temp yesterday set in 1911 and ended at 93F (33.9C). Just. Miserable.

We had to have our windows open (sadly we have a lot of windows in our house that DO NOT open!) and the light of our TV at night attracted these charming fellows.

June Bugs. So very gross. I shiver every time I see one of these guys. They slam into our screens at night attracted by the light of our TV, and the cat just about poops herself with wanting to jump in the windows and swipe at these critters. Yuck. I will be happy when the go away!

I have been doing a little gardening this last week. I planted a bunch of viola in a red pot because it made me really happy. I love the red and purple combo.

I also picked up a "Pansy Bowl" which was on special for a great deal. It fit perfectly in our planter and I was thrilled with the ease of just dropping a plant in and not having to scrounge dirt and arrange a bunch of plants I paid too much for. Sometimes instant is thrilling! (Especially when it's cheaper than what I would have ended up planting!)

I got a set of these planters from my brother (who made them from siding and cedar! Clever!) and we place them at the front of our deck every year. They see a lot of heat/sun, so this year I tried a simple geranium surrounded by verbena. Hopefully they will survive and (dare I hope?) thrive in the hot summer sun.

And lastly I thought I would show off the cute little green berries that are popping out of our strawberry patch now. So cute! It won't be long until we have awesome strawberries to nibble on! Hooray!

Alright - Off to get my workout in before the temperature gets too much higher. I have been sweating for hours already - so I am trying to think how good a cool shower will feel when I get done with my workout! :) Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Hooking is hard

On my vacation I very quickly whipped out a scarf in my bizarre crochet I do. This is hooked in Bernat Mosaic and I had no idea it was thick and thin yarn when I bought it. The end result is a kind of odd scarf. I made this with the intent of giving it to my co-worker for her Birthday. I still intent to do that - but I am a little unsure feeling about it since it goes thick and thin in the width. Hmmmm. Not sure what to think. Is it "artistic" or just plain weird? Does asking that question answer it for me?

Last night I re-cast on for my KAL shawl and made a little progress. I am pretty happy with how it's going and had the brain cells to quit when I caught myself trying to add random YO's to the pattern.

It is SUPER gorgeous today and I have been inside almost all day doing workout and cleaning. I MUST GO OUTSIDE! Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!

Things are getting done!

About a month ago I started the Figurehead Shawl by Alexis Winslow. The body was very easy to work but the border was a real challenge. That's a knit scallop edge! The design is really really clever - but I hated working on the border. Of course now that it is finished I am in love with it and thinking about other colors and yarns I would like to work this in. It's really cute!

I worked my version in Brown Sheep Prairie Silk yarn - Which is now discontinued. I really love Brown Sheep Yarns. I used just over 1 skein of each color - a lavender and a grey. REALLY love the results! I originally wasn't going to put a button on the project, but after I blocked this out I got more length I found that I could. The way I am wearing it in the picture below is with it buttoned under my chin and tucked under the bulk of the shawl. It was really windy when I took these pictures and the shawlette really kept my neck from feeling the wind!

I have been wearing headbands a lot lately and have been looking for simple headbands to knit. I found this pattern on Ravelry called "Cool Cotton Headband". I knit it up and it took 27 yards (15 grams) of cotton! A perfect use for those left over balls of yarn from knitting washcloths. This is a free pattern on Ravelry and I was able to knit it up in about an hour. (I think it took a little longer than that but I was surfing the net and drinking coffee....) It's still a little thicker than I would like for everyday wear - but I think it would be a perfect headband to throw in my make-up caddy for wearing at night when I wash my face. Would make a great instant gift or stocking stuffer too. I knit this with Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton. (I could make three of these out of one skein and still have a little left over yarn!)

And I finished my Sari to Drop-In Scarf knit out of Frabjous Fibers Millefiori yarn. (The recycled Sari yarn.) The pattern I used was Barb Bettegnies Drop-In Scarf pattern from Creative Knitting, Fall 2010: Accessorize with Style. I had made this scarf a couple years back in ribbon yarn and loved the pattern. It's really fast and easy and the results are quite pretty! This was another stash buster for me and I am very pleased with my results!

Not much progress on my vest this week. I have had a lot of insomnia and I won't work on that project when I am tired or lacking focus. I don't want to mess it up!

In other news - We are breaking records for our warmth here this weekend. It is just amazing out! Yesterday it was 67F  - our normal average high for this time of year is 37F! That's a huge difference! I saw kids biking outside the house in shorts and t-shirts! Amazing! I will be out in that garden before I know it!

A Swatch of ill repute

So I have finished blocking out my swatch and it's measuring about 19 stitches over 4 inches on size 7 needles. Sadly this yarn is STILL harsh! So I am leaning toward mittens (with a liner) and bags. If I had a loom I would make this into wool rugs in a heartbeat as I think this would be excellent rug yarn. It's REALLY scratchy. So I guess that's good to know.

I have been making progress on my Well Named Vest over the last week. I am a quarter of the way through the color work on the bust area. I love how it's turning out and I love that it's looking like an actual vest! I am still praying it fits when I am done. I have discovered that I can only work a chart when I am focused. That ripping back color work is poopy. And that as big of a pain as it is - I don't like the look of long floats on the back of a project. My first row of this has long floats and I almost ripped it back and re-did it. But lazy won and I just kept going with floats only carrying over 2 or 3 stitches for the rest of the color work. You can see some of this peeking out from the inside of the vest. I am not sure what proper carrying technique is for carrying floats in color work - I am not very experienced with Fair Isle or Intarsia. I just know what works for me.

In other news - it got into the 60's here today. That is INSANELY warm for us. After my workout today I went outside to fill our bird feeders in my t-shirt and Capri's (work out gear) and felt really comfortable! It's just so crazy! LOVE IT! I think I am destined for a warmer climate when I get older. I love Minnesota - but man the winters here really get me down!

Leap Day, Bad Weather and a Vest

It's Leap Day and I have to say it got off to a pretty rocky start. Our dog Emma freaks out about high wind, thunderstorms, rain, snow, sleet.... and is VERY reluctant to go out and do her business in the morning if any of these conditions are happening. This morning we happened to have most of these conditions all rolled into one. So I (still in my pajamas with garden gnomes, glasses on, and hair flying in 17 directions) throw on my husbands giant boots, tuck my gnome pajamas into the boots, put on a wool coat and cap and start the "Come On Em! Let's GO OUTSIDE! WEEEE" Game. This resulted in me standing out in a couple inches of slush, at 4:45 in the morning, with sleet/rain/snow pelting me and soaking my gnomes, while Emma circled the yard looking for some magic spot to go potty. This is how my day started.

Next I got to drive my car in this crap to work. This also sucked donkey balls. Seriously. Every time one of those trucks would drive by me on the freeway it was like someone opened a dump truck up on top of my car of slush. It was terrible. My hands and shoulders just ached from the tension of holding the car on the road with my mighty knitter hands by the time I got to work. My 30 minute commute took just over an hour. YUCK. AWFUL!

I really feel like I shouldn't complain either. We have had one of the mildest winters I can remember. Still. YUCK! Blessedly the drive home was MUCH better. YAY!

I have made a little progress on my vest. I am into the color work portion now and am anxious to keep going. I am still finding the pattern REALLY annoying. When I got to the point where I was able to join in the round I was finally given a stitch count. I was supposed to have 162 but I actually had 186. I reread the pattern to see if I could see where I picked up so many extra stitches - but I am at a loss. So I decided that I would knit a few stitches together to bring my count down to 180 which would put me one size up from where I wanted to be. Since this is the chest area and I am pretty busty, I think this will work out. Also, I know if I rip this thing out and start over I will not start over - so I am now in the "Winging it" portion of the vest.

In the back of my head a little voice tells me it's ok if it ends up too big because it's all knit in wool and if it's too fugly I can always felt it a little to shrink it up a bit. I have not yet decided if this little internal voice is a white hat or a black hat. We shall see!

Izzi snoozing the afternoon away.

Does anyone have any Leap Day Traditions? It didn't occur to me to do this until the day was pretty underway, but I thought I would see if anyone had any that they did on this "Extra Day" every year. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have it be a "me" day where you slept in, gave yourself (or went and got) a pedicure/manicure, maybe a massage if you like that thing.... I see possibilities here!

Hood and Shoulders Above the Rest

Yesterday when I came upstairs after my tread milling, I noticed it was starting to snow. At first it was just a cold freezing rain sort of mess, but it quickly changed to giant fluffy flakes. This is a terrible picture of the bird feeder outside our front window. We have several large pine trees and the Cardinals seem to know when it snows and they will appear magical frolicking in the snow.

After Tom got back from his workout I asked if we could do a Photoshoot outside with my new hat that I named "Hood and Shoulders above the Rest". The pattern is a free pattern on Ravelry called Capucine and I really love it! It's fast, simple, and a great stash buster for some bulky yarn in one's stash. (Although I HAD to have this in black to go with my new Red Coat, so I had to go to JoAnns and buy this special. Go figure.)

It was still snowing and starting to get a little dark out by the time we wandered out to take pictures. I left off the tassels that are used in the pattern and just wear it as it was knit. The ribbed section is flipped over and it frames my head (and my 80's cowgirl hair I was rocking yesterday) quite well. When It is really cold I can pin the "Wings" together under my chin for more warmth and stay-put power.

You can see the flipped brim a little more here. (It was snowing pretty good!) I think because I used such bulky yarn it was actually about 1 inch longer than it was supposed to be. None of the other patterns had a flipped brim and a lot of people using this yarn cast on less stitches and knit to a certain length rather than following a pattern exactly. I am happy with my results regardless.

This shot shows (if you can see around the snow) the bonnet quality this hat has. It would make an excellent hood on a sweater vest!

And here is how it looks in back. I love the stitch definition with this yarn. If you look in the background of the picture you can see Emma running in the snow. The first snow of the season is always so exciting for Miss Emma!

Am very pleased with and would (and intend to) make more of these!

Saturday Morning Weight In

Well - I was chewing my nails all week, but I ended up having a really great weight in! Down 4.2 lbs this week! (Take THAT weight gain from last week!) So I am now a total of 36 lbs lighter than my heaviest weight and since I joined Weight Watchers I am down almost 21 lbs. Very nice!

I spent much of this week thinking about the weight gain last weekend and telling myself things like "You are on the right path!" and "Trust the process!" but it was really hard to beat down the Stinkin' Thinkin' that ran more along the lines of "You knew it was too good to last - and now you will slowly fail!" Or "Did you really think you could lose weight AND eat Skinny Cow ice cream and drink wine? You aren't suffering enough to be thin!" Yeah. My inner voice is a REAL beyotch. So I was really trying to stay religious on my point system this week and really trying to focus on positive change.

I know I will have set backs. That is life ya know? I think it's all about how you deal with them.

 So after weight in this morning I let Emma out (again) and saw a lovely sunrise again. Nice to keep having happy Saturday sunrises that make you feel all inspired and junk. Notice our AWESOME Mayfly sculpture. It moved to the back deck for the time being. Makes me smile every time I see it.

Emma looked at me like I was nuts for poking my head out in my jammies. I could almost hear her say......"Good God Human! At least brush your hair or throw on a bra before you poke your head out!" Heh. I am sure my neighbors find my camera activity just charming. Yeah. Right.

A mere six hours later this is the mess happening outside. The birds don't seem to mind it though. It's the humans who are collectively groaning at this. We had 8 months of snow last winter. Eight. Months. Just revolting. So I am pretty sure everyone in the Twin Cities area is sighing right now and looking for their scrapers. GROSS!

You can see the back deck is already completely covered. Guess I better turn on the weather channel and see how much of this stuff we are actually going to get.

Have a great weekend all!

Reach up for the Sunrise!

Reach up for the sunrise
Put your hands into the big sky
You can touch the sunrise
Feel the new day enter your life~(Reach up for the) Sunrise by Duran Duran

 Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. Saturday morning! Waking up after a solid 8 hours sleep to a quiet house. It's dark now until about 7:00 in the morning or so - so I had a little over an hour of quiet darkness. Well, quiet except for Emma barking at the deer in our backyard and breaking the silence of our sleepy neighborhood. But that is pretty normal.

Today I had my weight in and I was down 2.2 lbs this week! I was surprised I did so well as I had terrible insomnia this week, lots of stress at work and I only did two work-outs this week rather than the four. So I was trying to prepare myself for a less than stellar weight in this morning, but I guess I didn't need to! :) Yay! So my totals are: On weight watchers I am down just over 15 lbs in 8 weeks, and since my heaviest weight I am down just over 30 lbs! YAY!

I try to notice the little things, so here are some "YAY!" moments with my Health Quest this week.

1. Last weekend we were at a busy grocery store trying to shop. I turned around to grab something and my hubby and I got separated. When he turned around to see where I went to he spotted me and then was like "Wait, is that Jen's butt I am staring at?" (I was bent over some produce.) When I plopped the pear into our cart he looked at me and told me "You have lost enough weight and changed your shape enough that I wasn't sure if that was your butt I was looking at or not!" Um....YAY! Probably one of the best compliments EVER on my weight loss and really the only person who can tell you how your butt is looking is your Significant Other - so ....yeah! NICE!

2. I have been wearing the same belt for quite some time. (I refuse to show crack thank you very much!) Last winter I remember going out and looking for a bigger belt because I was kind of feeling tight on the last hole of my belt. (Not a happy shopping day. I did not end up buying a belt - I decided to just work harder and drop the weight.) Yesterday I went to put my belt on and realized I was on the last loop on the other side of the belt! I have lost inches off my waist and will soon have to switch to a smaller belt so I can still be a crack free vixen. YAY!

3. I have hit the point where I need to stop wearing some clothes because they are starting to look crazy big on my. Yesterday I put on one of my favorite winter long sleep shirts - and it was huge on me. So the pairing down of the closet and the letting go of my old wardrobe has begun!

So, even though this week has been tough, I am pretty pleased with all the positive things that I see in my body. Just need to work on this insomnia stuff.

The tree in my neighbors yard is quickly going bare. I posted a photo of this same tree two weeks ago in my Sunday Snippets and it sure has dropped a lot of leaves since then!

 The seasons are flying along and I even heard the dreaded "S" word in the forecast this week. (S=snow) It's been in the 30's in the mornings this week and I have had to break out my knitwear this week. YAY! I get to wear all the hats and scarves and accessories I have been knitting all year! As much as I loath winter - I do love rocking out my knitting. Wahooo!

Speaking of knitting, here are some pictures of my KAL Cowl I am working on.

Last night I did my first cable repeat on my cowl. It was a bit of a challenge to sit on the love seat with my husband, dog, cat and me trying to knit cables while watching Ghost Adventures too. I decided I would quit after only one repeat because I was getting crabby! This is the front view of the first cable repeat.

And this is the back view of the cable repeat.

I am really enjoying this project, but I have to say I prefer doing a cable when I have less distractions. I have to say I am really not fond of how the pattern is written out. I am happy that it's not just a chart I have to follow, but the directions are abbreviated quite a bit - so I am having to think them out a lot. For example: it states"Row 2 and all (WS) rows...." and then it gives directions for all the (RS) rows so your 10 row cable repeat only ends up having 5 lines of directions. You have to know what row you are on and then find the row it tells you to do instead of spelling out the row you are on. So on row 6 I have to look at the directions for row 2, and then remember I am on row 6 not row 2 when I complete the row and move on to row 7. Add to that the directions for the cable rows refer you to another set of directions - and it gets confusing.  I normally rewrite patterns so that I have the exact directions for each row and can check them off as I go, and I think it was a mistake not to do that with this pattern from the get go. I just always try and work the pattern the first time through as the designer wrote it - so I can really get the feel of what the designer did.

All that aside - I am really loving the product this is making and the KAL experience as a whole.

Time to get out of my jammies and into my work out clothes so I can get my weekend going. Happy weekend everyone!