Anti-climactic...

Ho hum, so I finally finished the Must Have Cardigan. I dunno. I feel like I ought to feel pretty darned happy. It's finally done. I busted tail on it and it's finally done. I should be happy or something, right? Instead, it's like: *yawn* eh, it's done *yawn* . May be a sign of the blah feeling I've got going generally now. Or it could be that this sweater simply ran its course with me a long time ago and now I can't even muster the energy to feel anything about finishing it. In any case, here it be:
I actually finished it last night, but wasn't motivated enough to take a photo. Today, I snapped one and it's not even a super good one at that. Maybe I'll try for better photos once I am feeling better.

WIPs

There's a lot going on right now, so this will be another drive-by posting. Just need to organize what projects I've got in progress now.

Still working on the dang-blasted Must Have (been feeling particularly masochistic to try to make this) Cardigan. Everything is done except the last half of the second sleeve and sewing the sleeves in. All other finishing that could be done sans sleeves is complete. The problem is that I've lost all love of knitting this sweater. It holds no appeal other than I want it to be done and I want the bloody sweater. Fall has already started to make an appearance and I want that sweater as my Fall staple.

Started Caden's 2008 sweater. I am making the Devan Cardigan using this yarn:

It is ridiculously close in color to his 2007 sweater:

Apparently, I really love the idea of deep blue to match his incredible eyes. What can I say? I'm a sucker for his eyes.

Here's my progress thus far (it is limited):
that's the back in the middle there.

I've also cast on the Viking Bag with the good women from the Ravelympics team. One of the team members designed the bag. It is lovely. Karen (the designer) is so clever! I am using this yarn.

It was 50% at Vickie's, so I snatched some up. I am having some difficulty knitting with it. It is largely felted together and very, very stiff. So stiff that if I hold what I've knit up thus far by the needle side, the rest sticks straight out. It is heavy and stiff and does not really lend itself to cabling, but....well, did I mention it was 50% off???

It ruins my fingers to knit this in more than short spurts. So here's my slow progress thus far:I'm about 1/3 the way through with the knitting if I want a cutie purse. I don't think I can do more than that. But, isn't the center cable fun? Karen is due to have her first baby any day now. I guess that means I need to get on top of a welcome-to-the-world gift to send off to Denmark!

One of the other good women from the RavGames (I need an acronym for this: GWFTR. There I feel better already) sent me some of her gorgeous hand-dyed yarn that I had been coveting. It is called Pink Lemonaide and it is sooooooo insanely pretty. Michelle really knows her stuff! I started my first DayFlowers and Leaves scarf with it. However, I am really struggling with the whole dental floss yarn with larger needles thing. I've had to frog it several times and am now petrified that my attempts at lace knitting will hurt my pretty, pretty yarn. It is resting.

I'm also working another pair of Broadripples with yet another Cascade Fixation yarn. My love of this pattern and yarn continues unabated. Several work people dropped broad enough hints that these socks may well end up being my Secret Snowflake holiday gift.

I started to tinker a bit with my Mingus Socks that went so awry. I am not sure they can be salvaged.

Finally (I think), I began work on the Amanda Hat, using this yarn:
This Malabrigo is a farking dream yarn. It is sooooo soft and delicious! No photos of the hat itself yet. I'm not sure I love it as much as I want to and am going through some sort of torture-myself-with-cables thing. I am considering frogging this altogether and casting on the Coronet Hat instead. This is also an intended gift.

Oh! And another of the GWFTR sent me some scrumptious hand-spun and included all sorts of goodies. Check this out:
Seriously? It's like the most generous gift ever! Leah rocks! In the center live the handspun/handdyed yarns - gorgeousness. I just love the colors she has going there. The blues and yellows mixed with sweet browns are a particular favorite. To die for. The bottom three are super pretty mohair/mohair blends to make sachets. They are delicate, sparkly and such fun. Rounding it out - yep - that is fiber to spin! Oh me, oh my. The GWFTR have been encouraging me to try my hand at spinning. Apparently Leah was not content to simply encourage me. Oh no, she sends absoutely divine fiber. They are soft and fluffy and I just want to touch them all the time. Indeed, the fawn coloured fiber is an alpaca/merino blend that was so indescribably soft that I had to break the tiniest bit off and place it in my bra so I could have it all day long. Heaven.

I Almost Have a Must Have....

So, I didn't complete my Must Have (Most My Mind) Cardigan before the end of the Ravs. sigh.

Here is the post I did on my Rav Team's thread, written at 4am on Sunday:

WARNING: this is not a happy post.

I am admitting defeat. I am proud of the projects I completed over the past 16 days, don’t get me wrong. But the Must Have was my big-Ravelympics-project. At this point, my knitting is wildly scattered. I have completed the back and both fronts. I blocked these pieces and knitted the shoulder seams and am about halfway through the buttonhole band. I have about half of one sleeve. In preparation, I’d read the pattern through carefully, I swatched and I even made a bloody excel chart. These were all firsts for me and I learned a lot from the process. I did these things because I knew this was going to be a huge challenge for me. I did all I could but have completely lost focus..and it just ain’t gonna be done. sigh

I’m calling it early because I need to put it down or really start to dislike it. My new found passion over knitting (thanks in large part to the Ravelympics and this terrific team) are not sacrifices I am going to make to finish this before the deadline. It will be my first WIP of the HO group.

I’m bummed not to be able to have this as a completed project for our team. I feel a little like the girl who falls off the parallel bars…Sorry all.

ETA: I think I am going to spend the rest of this time cheering you guys on. Watching your FOs come in is great fun! I’d much prefer that to angry, tearfilled knitting!

This is where I got to:

Forty-eight hour countdown....

It is pretty much exactly 48 hours til the end of the Ravelympics. I am super nervous about finishing this sweater.

The back is complete. Here's where I am on the front (I ended up separating them, by the by):


The second photo is my attempt to take a picture of the pieces together. Didn't turn out super great.

I need to finish the left (right?) front, do the sleeves, block, sew and finish.

I don't know if this is gonna happen....

A Massive Case of The Dumb...

OMG - I need a special award. Seriously, I have the biggest dumb going ever, ever.

So, the blasted moss stitch that has been plaguing me - guess what I just figured out? There’s a pattern to the pattern. Just tonight, I realized that you knit the purls and purl the knit stitches on every odd numbered row and keep things even in every even numbered row. I mean, it’s so bloody obvious - the odds go odd and the evens keep even. I’ve knitted close to 350 blasted rows and I am just now getting it.

(truly, i believe this merits some sort of special award. grandest idiocy of the ravgames. clearly i should be on a podium.)

Logic, who needs it?

Even though I felt strongly that the Must Have and I needed a little break from one another, the ticking clock makes for serious motivation. I decided to go ahead and cast on the right front. Then, thinking about what a challenge this has been, I decided to do the left front simultaneously. Because yeah, I make a lot of sense.


It would probably be helpful if I'd ever learned anything about knitting two separate items simultaneously on one circular needle. But logic? Oh yeah, I defy you.

Nothing Lasts Forever

Today was a tough day for me - knitting-wise and in other ways. The end of a really loooooooong week at work with very little rest. I am starting to feel sick - ugh and just really cranky.

The sweater and I also had a little falling out. We were able to continue to interact, but relations became increasingly strained today, with a slightly resentful politeness closing out the evening. I believe the main point we disagreed on was whether or not the back should be finished today or at some undefined time in the future. We argued, there was a bit of a tussle or two, but I won out:

I am pleased with the corrected cables. But it is time for this sweater and I to have a little space from one another, I think.

Grooving

OMG - I hit a groove on the Must Have!

I came home from work and about the time I'd completed paperwork and settled in to some serious TV, I picked the Must Have back up. I'd been avoiding it. It was kicking my *ss. Between the painfully slow knitting and the errors, I was feeling ill at the thought of it.

But today I ripped through as many rows in four hours as I did in about seven on Friday. More than that, it started to come together in my head a little. Finally. I mean really, I'm not this dumb in real life, but I could not get this pattern. Until this evening. It was my first Must Have session that did not result in errors. I tinked back very little and looking it over, I can't find huge mistakes. Finally.

I added a few inches length and am ready to begin armhole shaping. I wish it wasn't so late cause it would be ideal to start shaping while I'm in this zone.

Here's the progress:


My arms are so sore though. Time for a break and little sleepy-sleep.

And the mistakes begin...

Another drive-by post. Gotta get the photos up so I can keep track.

The blasted Must Have is still in progress. I've about 11 inches of this impossibly huge back in. In my new-found love of all things sock, I forgot how slow sweater knitting can be. And I've not made an adult size in forever - never mind a larger adult. I discovered an error in the chart I made and that Liz and I spent an inordinate amount of time making printer friendly. Just ugh on that. But, just a couple of rows ago I began to feel myself in 'the groove.' I've not quite memorized the pattern, but I am starting to intuit things as I knit. Do you hear the heavenly choir?
Well, tell them to hush, because I just hit a hard, brick wall.

One of the things that tends to slow me down is my compulsive admiration fixation. Does anyone else in the world have that? Just me? Figures. Knit a row, stop, admire, knit the next row, stop admire and repeat. It slows me down an insane amount so I have been trying to quell the urge. Well, guess what? There are two blazing errors that went undetected until now. On the lower right side, I've done what can only be called an interesting interpretation of the Irish moss stitch for about three rows (actually, the error is in one row, but it knocks the continuity of three rows) and then....oh, then I completely missed a cabling section! Argh!!!! This is taking impossibly long. I cannot bear to rip back so far. I need to keep going to maintain any energy for the project.

View my shame:

I'm going to ask the good people of the boards (Go Team HO!) to help me live with this. If I have to rip back at this point, I fear I will frog the whole thing. And there's not enough chocolate in the whole wide world to help me deal with that buggerness.

The Ravelympics are ON, baby!

Finally, finally! Too busy to write much, but want to get photos up. So, random photos for now that I will make sense of at some point:

My first FO: little flowers for mom's slippers

They're wee, but they were my very first flowers and I kinda love them. Two went down in flames before I produced these three. They took an entirely embarrassing long time. I cannot knit. Why do I think I can? But they scored me a trip to the Ravelympics Podium. Yahooey! Even though they're tiny, they are done, thus FOs, thus I was awarded the new nifty avatar of BobicusMaximus himself.

And a medal:



How is this ever going to be a sweater in 17 days???




Okay, starting to look like a potential back of a sweater. But in 17 days? Still seems impossible...


For reasons unknown, I started on bamboo single pointed needles. Um, right after that photo was taken, I slapped myself hard on the head and switched to the nice Addi turbo circulars. duh.

There is one pocketbook slipper:



I do not love this slipper. I don't love it a lot. A whole lot. My lack of love for this slipper may be boundless. No offense to the designer (actually, I think there are two) but this is not a project I find aesthetically pleasing. At. All. It looks cute as all get out when all folded up earning its name. However, when stretched on the foot? Ummm...as I said, I don't love this a lot.

No photos of sock yet. Gotta get back to knitting (and the boards).

Ravelympics Must Have (Been Outta My Mind)

I'm not a nervous knitter. Knitting is supposed to calm me. This is currently not the case.

I've had two Must Have nightmares now... in one week.

This project is making me a different kind of knitter. The anxiety is the first difference.

Generally speaking, I've determined I am an insanely casual, by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of knitter. Pretty much every project has taken the same route: either I get the urge to make something, or life circumstances dictate it (since most projects are gifts, birthdays, holidays, etc are usually the impetus).

I then go the my LYS with a project in mind (e.g., mom wants a sweater, she hates cardigans, so a pullover). I flip through patterns. I find the one I most love and skim the directions. If it seems remotely written in a language I can grasp, I choose it.

I then approach the LYSO, show her the pattern and ask her to show me what yarns might possibly work. From the options presented, I then get to examine, explore, touch, squeeze, caress yarns until I fall in love with a color and feeling. I buy.

Sometimes, I fall in love with a yarn and then have to work backward a bit. But still, it's all off-the-cuff and based on my impulses.

Occasionally, if I am very smart (read: rarely), I look at the pattern enough to ask the LYSO about any parts that are unfamiliar. But mostly, I take pattern and yarn home, grab needles and cast right on. No careful reading of pattern, no swatching, no planning at all. Just "oh, pretty! I buy and make!"

The inevitable kinks that spring up along the way, I've been able to get by through trial and error. I'm not afraid to rip back. I'm a pretty even combination of process and product knitter. I like completing things. I really, really like FOs. But, I'm also pretty okay with starting something over and over and over, while I try to learn how to do it. People who get knitted gifts from me understand that the birthday or holiday or gift-giving occasion date occurs for me like speed limits: I shoot for the best and try to stay in the ballpark.

But this Ravelympics experience is changing me.



I am swatching.....

I never swatch (bad, I know). But, I am nervous about sizing. I don't think I'll have time to incorporate the upsizing for the pattern, so I am hoping to create a more generous sweater through tension and needle choice. I needed to make some swatches to see if using different needles and trying to knit a little loosely would result in a somewhat larger project. Using US8 needles, I seem to be getting a little more and may get about an extra 1/2 inch per every four. That might work.

I needed to feel out the yarn. I don't tend to favor 100% wool yarns. I know a lot of people love 100% wool, but I like a little blend to soften things up. My very first project was 100% wool and I have sad memories of actually pulling it apart because I tended to knit kinda tight back then. Blends usually are my choice. But, through the magic of swatching I learned a little about how this yarn knits up and think I'll be okay. Also, I read this yarn softens quite a bit with washing.

I'm terrified of the pattern suddenly and reading it closely and obsessively. As I said, I'm not usually worried about the ins and outs of patterns. I generally knit along, trying to understand what the pattern means and just rip out what is clearly wrong and try again. This is fine when I have no time constraints. I most certainly have a time constraint here.

Plus, this pattern has more things happening simultaneously than perhaps others I've done. Some parts embody a four row pattern, others an eight or three row, and another comes in at twenty-three rows. All at the same time. I think I've had to do this before, but I can't remember how successful I was at keeping track and how much ripping back I had to do. Especially since, have I mentioned, I recently learned I cannot count? It is seeming more and more short-sighted to take this particular pattern on for a seventeen day project. But, I've put it out to the universe... So, I needed to try to learn the ins and outs, to minimize errors. To this end, I've made many, many swatches trying to both understand and learn/memorize the panels, etc.

This has also made me realize I am not an intuitive knitter. Patterns are completely mysterious to me. In most cases, they will eventually start to fall into place in my mind, but this takes an inordinate amount of time. Each time, I try to knit along exactly as the pattern is written (as much as someone as haphazard as I can) and just marvel that something resembling the photo emerges. I rarely understand how it happens. I'm just thrilled every time it does.

But, I don't want to take those fun chances here. There's a clock ticking, by golly! I need to arm myself by "getting" as much as possible before that torch is lit.

To this end, I've also for the first time ever, charted a pattern. I hear tell that someone else made an excel file of the Must Have pattern. I thought to try to get my hands on it. Then, following nightmare number two, at 3am, I decided it would soothe me to quickly make my own.

That's funny.

It took.... oh, forever. But I did it.

And know what? Eventually, parts of the pattern began to make sense! I'm not saying I have it cold or anything, but there was a point while making the excel chart when I started anticipating the next bit of stitches. Oh, happy day.

So, I now have swatches. I've learned the yarn and my tension. I've read the pattern eighteen ways to Sunday. I've made a bloody excel chart.

I need to really commit to a color, buy yarn and find buttons (though I may opt out of buttons altogether). Oh! And I've ordered what I hope are fun, speed generating new needles.

Nineteen days til torch lighting...

Ravelympics

So, I signed up to participate in the Ravelympics. As per usual, I got excited about the idea of something and acted long, long before I thought it through. I joined two events - two events. One is the Sock Put and I'm waiting to hear whether mom's slippers can count toward that. Otherwise, those puppies are on hold until the Olympic torch is extinguished in Beijing. Also, I am kinda itching to get to Mom's Surprise Socks and so would gladly work those instead. The other event is the Sweater Sprint. There I publicly declared I would attempt to create the Must Have Cardigan (MHC).

In. Seventeen. Days.

This is a picture of BrainyLady's MHC. Isn't it gorgeous?
(And complicated looking?)









Thankfully, I found another brave soul taking the project on as well. Hootsister, I love you.

Another Raveler, RenaissanceWoman, has provided some tips. Her MHC is gorgeous and her project honed my desire for the sweater. She's suggested I spend some time working through the sweater panels so I can learn the basic gist of the pattern pre-Ravelympics. I'll be doing just that all weekend.

In the meantime, I had a dream last night. I don't remember all the details, but it ended with me sitting in a huge-mongous pool of mostly knotted yarn, sobbing while my mother made a bisque. I've no idea what the bisque could possibly mean, but the sobbing in a pool of yarn is hard to misinterpret.