Hourglass Sweater: Part Deux

I frogged the sweater Monday, being a good little knitter and winding all the yarn into nice loose balls as I went. Go me! Then I put all the balls into a bag so I wouldn't go insane trying to find them later on. Another go me! Tuesday I cast on again.

I did manage to twist my cast on row, but I caught it in time and since the edge gets folded over and sewn up, no one will ever notice the tiny little bumps from my twisted knitting. :-) I got through all the decrease rows last night. I added a bit of length (5 rows) to the bottom before I started decreasing. I added some length last time, but I was a big stupid head and didn't make notes about that, well, not notes that could ever be read by anyone ever.

Overall, it's coming along nicely. It's much easier and faster to knit the second time around.

*gulp*

After picking up my sweater tonight, I realized that I had mistakingly put my decreases on the wrong side for the raglan top. Oh noes. I ripped back the 8 or so inches of knitting... then remembered another place I had messed up but decided to ignore way back in 1498 when I started it... so I'm currently frogging the entire sweater. Oh well.

Oops...

You would think that since I have internet access now after a LONG, long, long break, I'd be on the computer non-stop. Instead, I've just been exhausted and lazy.

I knit a hat for Etsy. A scarf that will either be for Vince or Etsy. I'm waiting to get a copy of Last Minute Knitted Gifts from the library to finish up my hourglass. I just need to do about 10 minutes of knitting and the finishing before it's done!!

I'm knitting a red sweater vest (aka tank top according to the pattern) from Erika Knight's Classic Knits. I wish I had the lovely Rowan yarn it calls for, but I'm trying to stash knit for a while since I'm paying off lots of bills! I'm using the red yarn I recycled this summer from a Goodwill sweater. I should have it done soon. It's knitting up very fast.

Storage

My yarn is living twenty minutes away from me.

Storage. Ugh.

It can be a painful word. Especially if you're a knitter and have a sizable stash like myself. One giant clear storage bin, one medium sized blue one and a few random bags and boxes here and there. (Quick aside: when buying storage containers for your yarn, never, ever, ever buy a non-clear bin. I have a portion of mine in a light blue bin, and while it's a great bin, I have to dig through the whole thing to find one teeny tiny ball of cotton to finish a dishcloth... Not fun. And I always find some forgotten yarn that must be cast on right at that moment.)

My yarn is tucked away nicely in a lovely storage room on the other side of Boulder. It's been bagged and binned so I'm not worried about bugs or odor, but it's so frakkin' far away!

What do I do at 1 am on a Sunday when I have to knit a hat out of that lovely baby blue Debbie Bliss cashmerino? Or knit a monster for my shop? (Which I wanted to do last night but all the yarn and my needles are there!!)

The needle thing should be solved shortly, I have a nice little table that has a ton of storage, it's sort of like a small trunk on legs. I'm planning on making it my night stand so I'll have a lot more stuff nearby. For now, I figured it was more important to try to get my clothes unpacked and try to get my desk and computer set up (only the clothes have been dealt with so far.)

So for now, I'm stuck with knitting the last bit of the Hourglass and the just-under-a-foot-long Chevron scarf. I really want to frog the Chevron scarf though because I think I need to go up a needle size... Oh well. It still looks good and someone will like it if I don't.

Here.

I'm finally in Boulder. It was a very hectic few weeks... I've gotten NO knitting done and it's making me insane.

On my trip out, I stopped in Indiana to stay with Oma & Opa.* She had a large bag of yarn waiting for me. :) She always has a mini-stash waiting for me.

I feel like I should mention how awesome a knitter and crocheter Oma is. She knits faster than anyone I've seen in my life. She knits hats for charity. Since she's started she has knit over 2,500 of them!!! It's crazy. She knits them all flat, sews them up and puts pompoms on them too!!!

Okay, back to work. I'm trying to look for a job, unload my car, unpack, and get my life into some sort of order! Wish me luck.

Oh, and I swear that my Hourglass will be done soon. I only have a few rows to knit and then the finishing to do. I promise I'm not just knitting that because I don't have anything else to knit right now. ;)

*Grandma & Grandpa in German, aka, my step-grandparents.

Like sands through the hourglass...

So are the days of our lives.

I couldn't resist. :)

I finished the second sleeve of the Hourglass a few nights ago and it's now attached. I tried to graft the seams under the arms this afternoon and made a huge mess, but at least I got all the circs I was using as stitch holders out of the way. I'm going to watch Grey Gardens tonight and knit away!

Blues clues

I couldn't resist the lure of new kitchen cotton... I cast on for a ballband yesterday evening and finished it up this afternoon.

I made it with 9 stripes so it won't be ginormous. I think the 13 stripes just make it way too large for me.

I added the pink stripe just for the heck of it and to add some more color. I have little odd bits left of many different colors. I'm going to end up with all sorts of oddly striped ones by the end of summer.

I've set a goal to finish my Hourglass: June 10th. I am almost done with the first sleeve. I'd probably be much further along if I weren't using the most slippery and annoying DPNs on the face of the planet. I get irritated after about 45 minutes of knitting and just end up putting it down and knitting something else (Noro hat, ballbands, etc...) until I'm less pissed off.

I've taken my little break and I'm all set to finish the first sleeve tonight while watching some DVDs. Wish me luck!

Hourglass progress.

Time for the pattern again.

Movin' right along.

The chevron scarf is coming along nicely.

In other exciting news, I finally got my Hourglass back on the needles! Woooooo!

Hey! Ho!

Howdy. I'm around. I'm knitting. It's been a stressful week so I've just been picking up things at random and knitting a few rows here and there. I really need to get my Hourglass back on the needles, but that takes patience and I lack that right now.

On the bright side, random knitting has meant getting a lot of my long, long, long forgotten second Irish Hiking Scarf some lovin'. I got quite a few repeats done last night while watching Lost and some other crap. I'm hoping that maybe random knitting time means I'll finish it sometime before next fall. I'd like to use those needles for other things some day.

I've also been working on Zombie Fred. He has a lot of mad scientist hair and eyes and will have the last bit of his second arm today. He had a mouth, but it looked terrible so I ripped it out. It sort of made him look like a freakish clown. Very creepy, but not in a good way.

My last knitted item that's getting attention is the second hand towel. It's coming along nicely. I just pick up a project whenever I sit on the couch and knit away.

To the pond.

I frogged a few of the decreases on the Hourglass. I'm trying to figure out how far to go. I don't mind one extra decrease to add some more length to the sweater... but I also don't want to run out of yarn.

I did stuff!

Pictures!

First, Hourglass progress. I messed it up a bit... again... but I'm going to try to figure it out and make it work.


Next, the finished ballband and towel for my Mom.

[bookmark]

I have photos that need to be edited for size and some progress on the Hourglass to show off... but I'm a lazy blogger right now! Soon!! I swear.

*twitch*

Which makes a knitter more crazy: tinking back 8 rows of knitting on a sweater, knitting a very heavy piece of fabric on metal needles, OR an endless scarf of seed stitch?

I'm currently rotating through the three of them right now. I had to give my hands a break from the hand towel after using metal needles all day yesterday. And my eyes needed a break after hours and hours of tinking Sunday night.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get really crazy and pick up the Log Cabin and give it some much needed attention. I'd like to finish it sometime for the year 2015.

I'm dumm

I can't read apparently. I messed up my Hourglass royally.



I did 8 decrease rounds in a row. Yeah. I should read a little more closely. I'm in the process of tinking back. I just can't bear to rip it out and start over from scratch.

Hourglass KAL

I've gotten comments from several people who are knitting the Hourglass. I know the old Hourglass KAL has shut down, so I'm opening a new one. It should be up and running within an hour.

Be careful not to twist stitches.

Google that phrase. I'll wait...



Okay. How many results to you get?


347,000.

So why on earth did I just knit 6 rounds of my Hourglass sweater after twisting my stitches. I even double-triple-quadruple checked... and I still twisted the damned things! Ugh.

To the pond it goes.

Think pink!

The leg warmers are done and adorable. I ended up running out of yarn around 13" into the second one... so that meant ripping back the cast off edge of the first and just knitting until they were even. They are about 18 1/2" long. That's quite a difference from the 26" noted in the book. Not sure what happened there, but it worked out and I like them a lot. Of course, now that I've completed them, it's 70 degrees outside... although during March in Ohio anything is possible, so it might be -14 tomorrow.

I also got the yarn from Knit Picks today for my Hourglass sweater. It got here so quickly!!! I'm really pleased. The color is gorgeous!

It's Wool of the Andes in blueberry. The price can't be beat and it's very nice. I also got a ball each of forest heather and lake ice heather. I'm going to make a Hogwarts Slytherin scarf from them.

Order

I ordered the yarn for my Hourglass sweater. It's a very lovely shade of teal/dark blue. I don't have a lot of things in that sort of color, so I thought it would be a nice change.

I also ordered a ball each of a pale heathered grey and a dark heathered green. I'm thinking of making a sort of Hogwarts scarf with it. In lovely Slytherin colors. :)

I'm trying to work out the rest of the zombie doll plan...

And trying to finish up the legwarmers. I have about 6" of the second one done...

But honestly, I'm in sort of a knitting funk. I have things to knit and I like all of them, but I'm a little bored... I think I've just been inside too long!!