daily recap

Man, can my kid generate wax! You do NOT want to know how much crap was flushed from the ears of my child. Maybe he actually couldn't hear me, instead of just ignoring me. But he has no excuse now...

My family doctor, while great, has one fatal flaw for a knitter. He's on time. Seriously. Son's appointment was for 3:15, and we were in the examining room at 3:15. Since school lets out at 2:55, by the time I collected child, herded him into the car and drove to the office, I had no time to knit. I mean, really! What are doctor's waiting rooms for anyway? I used to be able to knock off half a sock waiting for doctor's appointments. By the way, this doctor also limits his practice enough that I called for this appointment yesterday. Yup - a 24 hour turn around. I could have seen him earlier, but I didn't want to take Son out of school. And he's a nice guy. And no, I'm not telling you his name - I don't need him to get more patients!

So while I did not get much knitting done there, I did have time between that, making dinner and getting to basketball practice to finish one fingerless mitt, and start another one.

Plus, I dug around in my Wellington Fibres stash to come up with some wool/mohair blends to make more. Between beaded bracelets and these, I may have Christmas in the bag...

Still here, still kicking...

I'm here, I'm here. (Nancy was worried). And with everything that's going on, I'd be worried too. Actually, everyone at my office seems to be worried. My ex-boss and I had a great working relationship, and every one here expects me to jump ship any time. Little do they know, given the right oppotunity, I'm going to. But on the outside, I'm all work. I do miss my regular Monday morning meeting with D. He and I would hash out our week, setting our priorities (which always got blown to hell, but still,) and have a chat. Now there's no one I'm comfortable chatting with. One never knows what people are reporting around here.

But I'm here. I still have the head/chest cold that won't go away. Our whole household is sick - Son started it weeks ago, and got better once he gave it to me, but his cough seems to be returning. Husband is sick with the same thing I have. The whole house has a lingering smell of Vicks Vaborub... (and yes, we are putting it on our feet). At least, Son and I are, husband scoffs at such things, but he's the only one coughing at night...

Son is going to the Doctor this afternoon - he generates enough earwax to start a small candle factory, so I need to get the ears flushed. Maybe that's why he doesn't listen to me. Yeah right. He doesn't listen becasue he's 8, and he doesn't want to hear what Mom has to say... I also want to have the Doc give him a general once over before we go away. How often should kids get physicals, anyway? I know as infants they schedule these things regularly, and as adults, well, I go once a year. But what about kids? I mean, he's generally healthy, he's growing as he should (he's taller than most kids in his class, so that seems OK). He's fitting into the general size of clothes for his age, he eats well, and overall, seems OK. So, do you take your kids to the doctor on a regular basis or just when illness strikes?

The other thing about the child's doctor appointment - it's right after school, but during work hours. Oh well, guess who gets to leave early? I mean, he's only 8 - I can't expect him to do this alone now, can I?

On the knitting front, Tubey is continuing along, but now that the fun part of the short rows is over, I get distracted. I finished the Regia Galaxy socks (standard toe up, short row heel mindless knitting socks):

(yay! another Christmas gift done!), and started a pair of fingerless mitts, using some Fleece Artist Kid Silk I found in my stash.

This stuff is deliciously soft, and is knitting up very quickly (my own design, done on the fly, so no pattern link). I have enough to make a few pairs of these, and will probably do so - they make great gifts, and the turquoise is a popular colour choice among my friends. The 2x2 rib really pulls it in, but it fits beautifuuly on the hand - I still have the thumb to finish here. I have some luscious Wellington Fibres skeins as well - I think a few more of these will come of the needles...

Finishing the Galaxy socks meant there was only one pair of socks currently on the needles (Knitpicks Dancing - gift for MIL), and well, we can't have that! So I cast on a new pair, probably for my husband, using some 50% merino, 50% tencel from the Sweet Sheep, in the colourway Coffee Bean. Yum. The tencel blend is lovely so far - I'm hoping this continues as I keep going.
Lots of little projects on the needles, plus Tubey. Sounds about right...

good news, bad news, and more of the same

The good news:
I'm goin' to Disney World! (I feel like I've just won the Super Bowl, or something...) But seriously, next month, we are Magic Kingdom bound. Usually, every November, I go to Florida and spend a week with my Mom. Quite often I bring along a girl friend and we shop, golf, sit by the pool, shop, go to the beach, shop, drink and shop. This year, Hubby and Son are my travelling companions, and we are going to the House of Mouse for a few days, then heading to my Mom's place. A much needed family break. We haven't told the young one yet - it's a month away, and I'd like him to sleep between now and then...

And Tubey! The short rows have been completed, and I took the time to sew in ends last night, so now it's straight knitting until it's the length I want, and done! I really hope to have it finished for my next Guild meeting. I even have some unflattering pictures of it in progress. Understand that the photographer is 8 years old, and I made him stop watching TV to take these.

The above two shots sow the rows at half completion - I was very happy with the coverage. THe one below I took this morning - Short rows complete, and while it looks as though Madonna could fit one of her cone bras in here, I'm pretty sure it will smooth out nicely.
The Bad News:
It's my boss's last day. He's not sure what he can do for me, but he's going to do some networking. I know the owners are very nervous about me jumping ship as well. They are bending over backwards to compliment me and do what they can to make me want to stay. I'm pretty sure I'm moving desks again - getting a window and a ton more privacy, but I'm not sure that it's enough. I'm going to make the best of it - I don't want to jump from this situation to something worse, so there is some information gathering to be done. ( and lottery tickets to be bought!)
Thanks for all the good wishes on my quest to get out of this place. WHile it is a bad situation, at the moment I can deal with it, mostly because they are TERRIFIED that I'm going to leave.

The Same Old:
Tubey continues on. Sock knitting continues on. I want to start some fingerless mitts for some of the teen girls on my list (and probably for me, as well!) I've got a great stash of Wellington Fibres worsted weight that will be perfect for these, and they will be great portable projects. (good travelling projects)

Crap.

This is bad. Very Bad. You all know the isues I have with the people that own and run the company I work for. Let's just say "integrity" is not a word in their lexicon. (actually, they don't understand polite, understanding, compassionate, nice, upstanding or a whole lot of other words, either).

The one beacon in this hellhole is my immediate supervisor, D. D is great - I've known him for years - we met when I worked for Sega and he was at Toys R Us. When I was job searching, he found out, and called me for this job, and they hired me right away. We have a fantastic work relationship, and I've said for months that he is the only reason I am still here. (You can see where this is going, can't you?) D resigned yesterday. His level for crap tolerance hovers around mine, but he gets more of it, so he reached his limit first. He also had some great networking help, which will now be helping me. I have made him aware of my job search, and he is all for helping me escape. Actually, he can't promise anything, but he's going to see what can be done where he's going. Keep those fingers crossed.

Yeah, life took a significant down turn when I heard this. I really don't know what to do now. He's going to be missed. And my work environment is going to suck. Large.

Tubey again and tagging

Wannietta tagged me, and it's short, so I can do this no problem...

Page 161, 5th line of the book that I'm currently reading.

"Mrs. Etra answered her front door and seemed very uptight and nervous"

- Four Blind Mice, James Patterson.

I'm on a bit of a Patterson jag lately. He cranks 'em out at such a rate, I'm never sure if I've read one when I see it. Libraries are great for this - I check them out, start reading, realize by the third page I've read it before, drop it and grab the next one. (I love his Women's Murder Club series). And yes, I know how he cranks out the books is such numbers - he works with a number of authors who provide the outline of the story, and write with him. But he does give them credit.

As far as Tubey - I'm about halfway through the short rows - I've done 5, and I think 10 (maybe 12) will be enough

You can see here how the slant is starting to form, and how the front will be longer than the back. That orange marker is where the side of the sweater is. It's funny - I always do short row heels on my socks, so this is starting to look like a gigantic heel forming. My one worry might be that the slant may be a little too acute. (High School Geometry, anyone?) If I find that the angle needs to be softened, I can rip these rows out, and space out my wraps and turns a little more. Hopefully, I won't have to do that, but we'll see.

Up close, you can sort of see the wraps on the stitches. You can't? Wait, let me help...

Carol asked how I avoid holes on short rows. I use a double wrap method. I start as above, wrapping a turning each stitch. Then when I go back to pick up the wraps, I pick up the wrap and the stitch, and then I wrap the next stitch again, giving it two wraps to be picked up. This does mean that the first wrap picked up does not get the extra wrap, but that's OK. Wendy has a pretty good description of this method in her short row heel directions on her toe-up generic sock pattern. I've probably got another couple of nights work to get the short rows done, then it's straight K3P1 knitting until it's the length I want. If I wasn't coughing up a lung still, this would be a much faster knit, but this illness is doing a job on me. I'm coughing so much, I've pulled a chest muscle. Lovely. I'm such a joy to be around...

ooo, I get to help someone...

Needles of the comments had this to say about Tubey:

"I'm watching you knit this one. I hope that doesn't come across sounding stalkerish, but well, umm, it very well may be. ha ha

I hope to knit this for SS, gf of son1. SS has the perfect hourglass figure (drat her) so the info on short rows is very valuable. Are you inserting them at the apex of the bustline, how many short rows, etc are my burning questions. If you can post this sort of info or direct me to it, I will grovel at your feet, and bless your name to the net forever."

Really, how can I not help my very first stalker??

Needles, I don't have the perfect hourglass figure (although I can dream...) but my girls are, as I said, substantial enough to warrant a little shaping. The way Tubey is constructed, the tube of the body is knit straight down from the shruglike opening of the sleeves. So, picture a shrug. It's basically two sleeves joined together, with an opening for your body to fit in. Picture the lower edge of this opening - all across the back, and across 5-6 inches on each side of the front. Then you add 40ish or so stitches across the opening to bridge the gap, and you have a tube that will become the body. (it's very well described in the Knitty pattern, trust me). The nature of this pick up is that the front bridge part tends to ride up a bit, because the back neck is pulling it naturally. If you knit a straight tube, even without any boobage, your front hem is going to be higher than your back hem. Add in some boobage, and well, that's just not pretty. If you look at the original Knitty pattern, the model is lovely and slim, and not heavily endowed. No short rows necessary. Then there's me. Short rows necessary.

My plan is for the short rows to form a bustline dart of about 2-3 inches in length. This translates to about 12-15 stitches worth of dart, so that's about 12-15 rows in which short rows need to be added. (Note, that I'm winging this - If a 3 inch dart seems to be too much, I'll let you know as I'm ripping). So if the total height of the dart will be 24 rows worth of short rowing, and I want the dart to be centred to about the midline of my bustline, I want to start the short rows about 12 rows above this midline. For me, that's about 3 inches into the body. And guess what? I'm pretty much there, so the short rowing will be commencing this week. I've started the process, and have three wraps on each side so far. And so far, so good.

I'll keep you up to date on the mods as I make them (and possibly un-make and re-make them...) and hopefully that will help. And understand I am not at all taking credit for the short row idea - Emma (I don't know her link - Steph? Rachel H? any ideas? I'd like her to get the credit due) short rowed her Tubey, and it was that sweater that inspired me to make mine.

I really hope this works. I've never had my feet grovelled at before...

starting to resurface

Man, this cold, or whatever has really taken a toll. I'm still only at about 60%, but that's a far better state than last week. I almost have my voice back - I'm still being mistaken for a man on the phone, but whatever. (and that was by my Father in Law!)

I felt like knitting again, finally, and did a little work on Tubey. I put the stitches on a thread and tried it on. Remember, this is the second edition of the body - the first has way too many stitches. I did a little math, and reduced the stitch count, picked up the stitches, and started knitting. I love it. I think I've hit on the right size. Of course, I'm basing this on about 2 inches of body, so I could be completely off base, but we'll see. One idea I'm going to steal from Emma is short rows. When I saw Emma's Tubey at Kitchener, she mentioned that she put in some short rows around the bustline, and it made the sweater sit better. Well, my girls are a wee bit more substantial than Emma's. so I am DEFINITELY going the short row route. I can already see where it would ride way up if I didn't.

Have I mentioned how much I love these colours?

Tubey has become my TV watching knitting - as long as I remember how to count "Knit 3, Purl 1, it should be fine. Of course, once I start the short rows, I'll be "Knit 1, Purl 3"-ing, so I can see problems. Lace charts? No problem? Cables? Piece of cake. Counting to Three? Now, that might be asking a lot...

One thing I find hard to believe - I only have two pairs of socks on the needles, and both of them are in the hone stretch. These are my "swimming lesson, basketball practice, lunchtime work" knitting, so once I get these two done, there's 2 more Christmas gifts. But I will have to get another pair on the needles shortly. Two is just not enough for me...

The Galaxy socks on the left are for my son's teacher, and the Knitpicks Dancing on the right are for my MIL.

blushing...

Thanks for the nice comments! I'm not always sure how I find blogs either (it's usually through links), and I try to comment on them when I can, or when I have something to say.

I had plans to show you the progress on Tubey (sleeves done, body restarted - I'm hoping the fit will be better - I want to get a few more inches done,then I will try it on again. I'm still loving this pattern, so it's a nice knit. I had to add about 4 inches to each sleeve end in the solid red to get the length, so I did it in the knit 3, purl 1 pattern, same as the body. I think it ties in nicely. Here's where I would be showing yo pictures, but I forgot to take them. This cold or whatever I have is taking it's toll. (Either that, or the Advil Cold and Sinus that I'm taking.) I'm a little spacey these days, and I've completely blown out my voice. With a nod to Ben Affleck, my voice is Gone, Baby, Gone. It's such a strange thing for me, not being able to talk.

I also have progress shots on some more socks, but that too would entail getting my camera out and taking pictures. Next week, I promise.

And last but not least, I really want to get some pictures of the changing leaves for CatBookMom. Those SoCal people miss out on the gorgeous colours we get up here. I'm planning on using the weekend to recover. WIsh me luck. Oh, and to all you Rhinebeck goers? Be prepared for next year - LuckyCanuck and I are planning on going! I can't wait to read all the entries on how fabulous it is...

blog stats

I was checking my blog stats a while ago. I'm curious as to how many people are actually out there, reading the drivel I write.

It seems I average about 50-80 page loads each day, and this drops a bit on weekends (obviously, since I never seem to write on weekends). But I had a few major surges in traffic. I mean really major. Like in the 600-800 page loads, and one day even topped out around 1,200 loads. Whoa, what happened there? Then I started looking at the dates. Aha! The power of the Harlot raises it's head. Every time Stephanie links to me, people hop over for a look-see. That's kind of cool. And while the majority of them don't stay around long, I seem to gain a few new readers each time.

If you've come over through Stephanie, and have stayed long enough to read this, let me know. I'm glad you're here, and even happier that you've stayed here.

And Steph? Your power scares me. I'm glad you use it for good, not evil...

I guess that brings me to another question. If you didn't get here through Stephanie, how did you find me? I know some of you - Lucky, And CatBookMom through the About Knitting forum, and Nancy, Jen and Helga (and some others) through the Guild, but others, like Carol and Deirdre - how did you get here?

I know I find new blogs to read through links on blogs I already read - and there's a lot of them. I should update my sidebar - it's sadly out of date. And is it only me, or do other people do this? When I find a new blog, I have to go back to the beginning and read the archives, rather than just start at the date I found it. Am I weird? (Or just weirder than I thought?)

not suitable for children, I guess

geez, because I used the word suck twice and shit once. It didn't even pick up all the "crap"s I've used...

I'm back at work, after a day and a half of being horizontal. Man, whatever I have (probably the flu), knocked me silly. It was all I could do to get from the bed to the couch.

But I'm at work, because if I took one more day, I'd be in trouble. I'm somewhat functional, not firing on all cylinders, but we'll see. I've got that lovely smoky, whiskey like voice! Now if I could get everyone here to leave me alone, it would be much better.

I didn't see THAT coming...

I had my employee evaluation on Friday. I was expecting to get reamed for my attitude, and other issues. Obviously, I'm more of an idiot than I thought, because it seems I have been imagining just how snotty I am. I got a "Significantly Above Target" rating. Wha???

I was told that I am a role model, and someone to whom people look for information. "I'm an asset to the company, and we look forward to many years with you". Again, wha???? As I said to Lucky, I had to check the name at the top of the evaluation, to make sure it was mine. Now, I will admit that I'm good at my job, and I have instigated a number of new measures, that save time and money, but I guess I hide my dissatisfaction better than I thought. If not for the general way they treat people, and the dubious way they do some business, I would stay here. But the way people are treated is way more important to me than a job.

Hence, regardless of the great review, I'm still looking to get out of here... And to be honest, I think I will be out of here early today - I'm sick. My throat is burning, stomach upset, all over yuck feeling. I couldn't even stomach coffee this morning! That's when I know I'm sick. I thought I could tough it out, but now that I'm in the office, I don't think so.


Before I go - I finished the Shelridge socks. These were my "keep in my bag for knitting a few rows whenever" socks. They went to soccer practice, swimming lessons, work, all over. A testament to people who say they can never find time to knit. I made these in grabbed moments through the day. It can be done.

slowly creeping up on us...

Christmas, that is. (If you celebrate it.) I know some non-Christmas celebrants, but I still like to gift them in December - I feel like you can gift friends at any time of the year, and these friends don't seem to mind being gifted at the end of the year. They get "non-secular, non-religious, just because I like you and it's the end of the year" gifts. Whatever. I just really like giving stuff I've made to people I care about. I don't really need a Holiday for it, but the fact is, Christmas works for me.

Anyway... my list is starting to haunt me. (Haunt. Damn. Must think Hallowe'en first...)

So, the list. It kind of keeps growing. Especially the work people. There are a few people at work that I exchange with (surprisingly enough, NOT the owners...) but people come and go around here at an alarming rate, and some of them are too nice for their own good, and seem to be the type that will gift too many people. So, sucker that I am, will have a few extra bracelets or such wrapped and read for the quick reciprocating gift. Of course, this is all dependent on whether or not I will still be working here in December. I'm hoping not to be, so then it's easy - I will just have a few "Wahoo! I'm outta here, wish you were coming with me!!" gifts to give to some friends.

I do have to say, the kids in the family got a whole lot easier this year. Not only have they quite broadly hinted that gift cards are the way to go, and their parents have added the broad hints along these lines, and as much as I'm not fond of giving gift cards (it always seems like a last minute cop-out to me, even if I've bought them weeks in advance), but my newly refubished Dominion has just added a HUGE display of every gift card you could want. We're talking I-Tunes, Roots, West 49th (for the teens), Bass Pro (for the fisherfolks), Second Cup, Shoppers Drug Mart, and assorted other stores (for the ladies)... I could go on and on. Gift buying while grocery shopping. I can do this without stress.

(You know I'm going to add to my stress and knit gift card bags, or something silly, don't you...)

And... here's the pictures that I should have posted yesterday of the Regia Galaxy yarn. I've already finished one sock for Son's teacher, and I think I will use the brown for a friend of mine.

Oh, and in case you noticed - I have new pets on my sidebar - Sonic the Hedgehog (hey, I used to work for Sega...) and Swinger the Monkey. If you click on them, they will play with you. You can even feed them by clicking on the MORE button. I chose Sonic because of the Sega connection (Boy, do I wish they were still in Canada - that was the BEST job I had...), and Swinger because my Son is enamoured with monkeys. (and Penguins. go figure).

Looking forward to the weekend - Son has a basketball game on Saturday morning, and other than that, we have nothing planned. (Except maybe some job hunting for me, but that's a constant in my life these days.) Enjoy the weekend - see you Monday!

new yarn, and a great new book

Last Tuesday was our Guild meeting, and we had Maureen Mason-Jamieson as our guest speaker. Always a pleasure, as she shows her new patterns, and the knitted up samples of such. It's so much nicer to buy patterns when you can see the items already knitted up. I bought some... but one was for Lucky! really! they're not all for me...

I also bought some new sock yarn, because of course, I wanted it. I have no need for sock yarn, but need and want are two completely different things, especially when it comes to sock yarn. Regia Galaxy. It knits up into planet-y like patterns, and my son's teacher is big into astronomy, and he takes the class (with parents) stargazing a few times a year. How cool is that? So that would explain the blue yarn. The brown and the beige just decided to come live at my house on their own. (Yes, I did pay for them!) Of course, here is where I would insert a picture of the yarn I just described. Yeah, that would be a good idea. Maybe once my brain gets back to full speed, I'll remember to do that.

But my best purchase? Fiona's new book. Inspired Fair Isle Knits: 20 Creative Designs Inspired by the Elements. We saw a black and white draft of this book when Fiona came to Stephanie's talk in August, and I vowed then and there that I would buy it when it came out. I have her Inspired Cable Knits book, and I tell ya, these books are not just pattern books. These are coffee table books - full of wonderful photography, inspired (get it?) writings, and explanations of the design process. Fiona is genius. Seriously. Get this book.

And I realized that I didn't show you the knitting project bags I sewed up last week.

Can you see the pattern on the fabric? It's balls of yarn, skeins of yarn or a representation of knitted fabric. So very cute! I found these through Linda of our Guild. On the bus back from Kitchener, she held up this package of fat quarters quilting fabric, printed with all these yarn and knitting designs. Hello? How did I miss this? I found out where she bought it (Ruti's Needlebed), and where they are located (Mississauga). Excellent - Mom lives in Mississauga. One phone call to Mom, and she was off on a road trip. (Mom's a knitter, and she taught me to sew, so she understood my Need Factor for this stuff). She grabbed me three bundles of the fat quarters, and had high praise for Ruti's shop. It seems that this fabric is also sold by the metre, so it looks like there might be a road trip the next time I'm down visiting Mom... The bags are square bottomed, and just big enough to hold a small project like socks, scarf, mitts. I've promised one to Joan T of our Guild. Joan doesn't knit socks. She hates knitting socks. With a passion that runs deep, she hates knitting socks. I told her if she knits socks, she gets a bag. Joan may be knitting a sock this month...

weekend recap and a new yarn store

Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. A weekend for cottagers like ourselves to get north and do all the jobs you hoe to avoid. Taking boats out, taking docks out, emptying flower pots, mulching leaves, and generally getting the place ready for winter. Our place is winterized, so we can go up during the snowy months, however, our life doesn't always allow it. Whereas we love it in the winter, our son plays basketball on Saturdays, and that cuts into the weekend too much. My BIL and his family have the time to go, but SIL is not a fan of the winter cottaging experience.

MIL and FIL don't get up as often as they day they want to - they have their own reasons for this. So, we basically put the place to bed. It's easy to open up again for a weekend, but we don't leave any food or stuff accessible for the critters, and we turn off water, heat etc. Thanksgiving is usually a hard working weekend - braving the icy water to get the dock out, warming frosty hands in front of the fire after composting all the flowers and other such remnants of summer. Then there's 2007. I happily tossed on bathing suit to do the dock work. Okay, maybe not happily, but it made points that I went in, and it got me out of doing dishes for most of the weekend. But I did live in shorts pretty much the entire weekend. The two 8 year old boys were swimming (the 13 year old nephew was too cool for that). It was almost depressing to toss the still blooming flowers into the compost heap.

We didn't drive up until Saturday morning, as Son's cough was still keeping us up at night, and we decided to take one more night at home before subjecting the rest of the family to it. It was a good idea, because he was great for the rest of the weekend. As we were approaching Port Perry, I asked Hubby if her would mind stopping. This would be my only chance to catch Carol of Never Enough Wool while she was open! And Hubby, being the great guy he is, obliged. I got to stop in, see Carol, remind her of our meeting:
in Kitchener, and buy some yummy wool.

Hacho Hand Dyed Merino from Peru. It supports the workers and their children, which is reason enough to buy it, but it's also fabulous, squooshy, incredibly coloured, and destined for socks for me.
Then there was the Luxury Merino Superwash DK. My dancer nephew in Montreal has requested legwarmers in "dirty-limey green". I think I found it.

Since legwarmers are nonstop stockinette stitch - these are destined to be done on the machine, mattress stitched, and hand ribbed. I'm nothing if not lazy...

I also picked up a few things at my Guild meeting last Tuesday. Let's just say Tove had some new things, and they went home with me...

and now back to our regularly scheduled blogging...

Hi, I'm back. For a little while today at least. I promise lots of pictures, and writing and stuff through the week, but right now, I'm just trying to find myself again. I took a week away from the office, and while it was relaxing of a sort, it also confirmed to me that I don't want to work where I do. Monday night was almost painful to me, thinking about the return to the office on Tuesday.

I didn't go anywhere, but I did take some time for myself - it's been a long time since I have done that. We got through my father-in-law's 80th birthday celebration, I handled a bunch of car repairs, I went on a field trip with my son's class, I did some stuff around the house, I knit, I sewed, I worried about my son who was coughing a great deal (he's fine - just a cold, but colds always seem to manifest themselves with him as a cough - a big, juicy, painful-sounding cough. But the doc checked him out and he's fine).

A week isn't long enough. I think I wanted to do so much, and there wasn't enough time to do it, which could also be a reason why I'm a little depressed. I did some sewing, but not nearly as much as I wanted to do. I also over-estimated my rusty sewing skills - I should have started with the skirts I cut out, but noooooo! I had to go at the silk crepe blouse. Yeah, that was a good idea. It's in a time out right now, on my dressmaker's dummy. I will get back to the skirts. I did sew up a bunch of little knitting project bags, and some dpn holders, and a prototype for a circular storage hanger. (Lucky - yours is coming soon!) Sorry for the crappy picture - I was in a hurry. Also, cream coloured fabric, and cream coloured door - bad mix.

One thing this showed me - I have way too many circular needles. Seriously - do I need 9 4.00mm circs? Obviously, I do, becasue that's how many I have.

I did some knitting - Tubey was kicking me around. I love it, and I want to make it right, so I'm taking the time to make the corrections I need to make. It turns out, that I don't have enough of the Sheepstrings to make the sleeves the length I wanted, so I've ripped back the first one a bit, and will use the yarn on the second one. If I need some length added, I will use the solid Maple Red for a seed stitch cuff. I also started the body, and got through a ball of the Maple Red, put it on a length of ribbon to try on, and decided to rip it out and reduce the number of stitches - it was a bit loose. Now, I'm not one for ripping - I don't like to do it. (Combine that with my lack of swatch knitting, and well, you can see why I don't make fitted garments very often). But for this one, I will happily do it. I love this sweater. I love the colours, the fit and how it is coming together. I also did some sock knitting, and I may have bought some yarn. Come back and see soon!