Completed and Started

I finished my Diamonique top earlier this week, but haven’t had a sunny day yet to photograph it. Hopefully I will be able to this weekend. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous but I have the unfortunate duty of going in to work at 7am both days to help inventory the entire warehouse. So totally not my job. I miss my weekend already!

I started a new project on a whim – a gift for my Mom for Mother’s Day. And let me just say that if I happen to finish it in time, I will probably shatter every one of my previous “time to complete project” records.

And Mom? If you happen to be reading this, stop now OK? Because with my luck this would be the one time you come and look at my blog!

Her gift is going to be a Bob sweater from Knitty. Actually, it was going to be a lace scarf that I didn’t finish in time for Christmas but there is no way I can finish it in time for Mother’s Day either. (Because I haven’t even touched it since I decided it wasn’t going to happen in December.) I’m shooting for her birthday in July, but it might make it all the way back around to next Christmas.

Anyway, I am making Bob from some of the new (un-discontinued) Cotton-Ease by Lion Brand yarn and I love it. Very soft and almost spongy-springy. And the new colors are great too; I am using Lime but it was a difficult decision. This is three nights and one ball of yarn worth of progress:





I am actually optimistic that I might finish in time.

Blocking.

I've finally finished knitting the body of Diamonique. Here she is blocking on my living room floor:





Sorry about the poor lighting. By the time I realized this location was not going to be good for photographs it was already pinned to the carpet(!). I am very excited about finishing this top, although I am a little concerned that it is going to be too large since I blocked it pretty aggressively to show off the lace. We'll see what happens once it is dry and I knit on the neck ribbing. (As a side note, the color in the photo is much more accurate than the pale yellow in my last post. It's a very rich summer-y yellow.)

Thanks for all of the nice comments and messages I recieved on my unfortunate back injury. I actually went to a doctor and am feeling much better. But tell me, how could you not feel better when taking steroids and vicodin? Joking aside, looks like it was just nerve inflammation and not something damaged so I should be all better very soon.

I need to spend tomorrow (or the whole weekend by the looks of things...) cleaning around the apartment. There is stuff out of place everywhere since I was in too much pain earlier this week to care where I was dropping things. I need to be firm with myself: no knitting, internet surfing, or going outside to play until things are clean.

So basically this means someone needs to come over and hide my needles, mouse, and car keys!

No Sudden Movements

I have spent most of the last three days flat on my back. I have never had a back injury before this and I was not prepared for the extreme pain which accompanied every move I made. How did I manage to hurt my back? Well, it is kind of embarrasing. I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to laugh, OK? I was lying on my stomach on the living room floor, propped up on my elbows and reading. And I sneezed. (Hey! I say no laughing...) Really though, I feel like an idiot. But it is finally starting to loosen up a little. Now that I can sit up all of the way for a reasonable length of time, I thought I would post a progress photo of my Diamonique top.





It needs some serious blocking, but I am finally nearing the homestretch. I just need to finish the right half of the front and add the neck ribbing. Maybe I can finish it by the weekend? Not that it is going to be warm enough here to wear it yet, but I have been very anxious to start something new!

Oh, and you know when you say you would like a day just to lie around and do nothing? It gets old faster than you can ever imagine. It took less than a half hour this morning before I started feeling like I was wasting a perfectly good day. I was actually wishing I could get up and do some laundry. Or even go to work!

Finished Project: Christmas Ornaments

Christmas in April? Let’s just say I am finished with my first holiday knitting really early this year. (It sounds much better than saying I am almost four months late!) These are going to be package tie-on or little gifts to people who might normally just get a card.





The mini hats and mittens were made from a Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mill kit. The yarn was unlike any wool yarn I have used before. It’s soft and very spongy. I am going to keep it in mind for a future project, assuming all of the Blackberry Ridge yarns have these qualities. It would make a very cozy sweater.

I was determined to use up as much of the yarn as possible, so after making the hats and mittens from the pattern I decided to do something different and made the little sweater and stocking. I have a little of each color yarn left still, but I am going to use it to make hanging loops on the mittens and maybe the hats. I think I am also going to bend a piece of wire into a mini hanger for the sweater.

Happy Easter

I decided yesterday that I needed some easter eggs to display on the table. I wanted to end up with bold, bright colors. Most of them turned out nice (the deepest colored eggs sat in the dye for almost a half hour). I even used some of the "shrink wrappers" from the kit since they were not too cutesy for once. Also notice the missing egg, which I dropped on the counter after boiling and then ate for lunch. I usually not much of an egg person, but for some reason I had a strong urge to eat a few more as I was coloring them. Is that strange?





Looking at all of the leftover dye, I was kicking myself for not having thought to pick up a ball or two of white wool. Especially for the blue, which was a gorgeous color (at least on the eggs!).

Not much knitting.

After two of the worst flights of my life (due mostly to Chicago weather - they don't call it the windy city for nothin'!) am I back home but not back into my routine yet. I like travelling but love returning home even more. I'm very much a creature of habit. Anyway, I've been staying late at work to catch up on things and haven't felt much like knitting in the evenings.

Maybe it is spring fever, but I have had a major urge to clean out closets and cabinets in our apartment. In my head, this includes my knitting and crafting things but when I pull it all out to decide what I can get rid of, I always can come up with reasons to keep everything. Hopefully this time will be different and I will have a few things to sell and open up space for new projects. We don't have a lot of room and I think I need to be more selective with what I fill it up with. I've decided that in the future, I am only going to buy yarn/supplies with a specific project in mind. We'll see how that goes! I think after I do some cleaning I will feel more settled and more like knitting again.