one stitch short

Good Times

Yesterday was a great day! My office threw me a little birthday celebration, complete with a birthday cake. As my husband will tell you, birthday cake is an essential component of a birthday. We had a little birthday breakdown a couple of years ago because I didn't get a cake. :-) The students in my office made me a birthday frog and a birthday card. I also found out that I'm going to have a four day weekend this weekend, which means more time in New Orleans hanging out with Carrie and Anne Marie. Oh, and the best part, yesterday wasn't even my birthday! Today's the day and Jason has promised that this will be a great one. I'll let you know later what he has up his sleeves. Speaking of sleeves, I'm over halfway finished with my last body piece on Audrey. Almost to the lace edging. I can't wait!

The View from Here

Today, I thought I'd give you a little glimpse into the view from here. This is how I start my day. At my desk with a coke and a candy bar. Nothing like a healthy breakfast! Today, Sophie came along toting my Audrey progress around so I can work on it during my lunch break.

This is how I end my day. Hanging out with my "boys" in the living room. This was night before last, Jason was playing on my laptop and T-Bone wanted to be right in the middle of it.

This is what I do in between, knit. I wish I could do more of it. I have made it to the increases on my last piece of Audrey. It's going pretty quickly. I just love working with the Calmer and know that if I can get the fit right on this sweater, I'm going to get a lot of wear out of it.

Return of the Knitter

I'm back! I just didn't want you to think I had fallen off the face of the earth. :-) I had a great weekend but I'm really missing the productiveness that I usually have on a weekend. I didn't get anything accomplished and I came back feeling exhausted so I still haven't accomplished anything. I have been knitting! I am working on my final large piece of Audrey. I also took one of my Christmas presents with me to work on while I was out of town. It's all stockinette so it's very easy to work on while paying attention to other things. I'm trying to exercise some self-control and not start another project until I wrap Audrey up. As it is I have Audrey on the needles, plus two Christmas gifts in progress, so my plate is full.

I returned home from work yesterday exhausted to find that the new Rowan had been left on my doorstep. Oh happy day! As usual, there's lots of eyecandy in this issue, but there are two things that I plan to make. One will be a stash buster, the gloves. I have enough yarn for them left over from Birch. The other will be my first journey into fair isle, Helga. I've shown you Helga before and was happy to receive the magazine and still like it. I'm very excited about it. I'm going to order extra yarn so I can have plenty of practice before starting on the real thing.

I'll share more about my weekend when I can show you pictures and such!

Hittin' the Road

What a week! It's been a bit crazy at work because I won't be there tommorow or Friday! I am helping with a college student retreat which is going to be a crazy road trip! It should be a lot of fun, but it puts me out of commission until Sunday night or Monday. I plan to return then, with pictures. :-) Thanks for all of your kind words on Purple Penny, I haven't been able to respond to many of you due to the crazy week. Have a good weekend!

The "real" Purple Penny

The brief photo shoot on the way out the door just didn't do Purple Penny justice. My cameraman humored me and took some more when we got home from work.* Today I got complimented on this sweater and the colors that I selected, even when they didn't know I made it. That was really cool. It was fun to say "thanks, I made it". One woman told me I had a "hidden talent". I guess I never really thought about my knitting as a talent, it's just something that I do. But I consider it talent in others. Hmmm...

I thought the Purple Penny was the perfect opportunity to do "the Rachael". I hadn't busted that move before, but I thought it was appropriate today.

Speaking of busting moves, this is the ever-famous dancing shot. I had troubles coming up with dances today so I went with the default groove. The look on my face is the "what dance should I do" look. These photos haven't been retouched, I guess the sun just changed positions while we were outside making them look different.

I guess you might want to know the specs. The pattern is Bad Penny created by Stef. I made this using some of the yarn that Chris sent me during Secret Pal round 1 (thanks!). It is Gedifra Wellness. I still have a ball and a half left! It was fun to work with and I enjoyed wearing it today. The trim is Microspun that I had left over from a baby set I made a while ago. So, this one was a stash buster. I didn't purchase any new yarn for Purple Penny! Yay!

*I decided today at work that it is long enough so it will remain as is...I'll probably make the next one a bit longer, just to add variety.

Purple Penny

There ya have it, purple penny is complete! This isn't the greatest picture but it's the best we could do as we were running out the door this morning. There were several firsts with this project. First time I used continental style knitting, first time I have been meticulous about going back to correct mistakes, and the first time I am completely happy with the quality of the garment! Today will be the test to see if I go back and lengthen it. I have plenty of leftover yarn, so it's just a matter of the extra time to correct it. So far, it's okay. We'll just see how I feel about it by the end of the day. In the "things I would do differently" department, there are only two: Possibly make it longer and make the collar lower. It's kind of high in the front which I'm not used to. I finished this puppy on Friday night and got to cast on for a Christmas present. I made mad progress on the present and I'm not tired of it yet so I'll probably continue with that project for a little while.

Happy Frogday!

Okay, so I know that in knitting froggin' isn't generally a good thing. But, isn't this little critter cute? He was caught hanging out in my front yard this week. He was just hanging in a little hole in the drain cover. He let me get really close before letting go. Jason thinks that he was a young frog and didn't know that he should be scared. T-Bone was not interested, despite our recent discovery of a dead frog near his crate. At any rate, I hope you enjoy this picture as much as I do and that you have a Happy Frogday! Reasons I'll have a Happy Frogday -

When the Going Gets Tough...

the knitters go shopping! Well, that's what I do anyway! I'm kinda tired of my current projects and I'm ready for a change of pace. Enter all of the new fall/winter magazines. I haven't been blown away by anything, until now. It's Helga. Perhaps there are a few things you should know. First of all, I don't know how to knit fair isle. I've only had one venture into intarsia and it's not what I would call a successful venture. But here I sit, in love with a fair isle sweater. What's a girl to do? When it comes to knitting, I've always taken the attitude that I can figure it out. Nothing is too difficult for me. This has caused many late nights of pulling my hair out, but it has also resulted in the aquisition of many skills I didn't think were possible. I might just have to try Helga. If I make a big swatch of the pattern and get familiar with the method first, it should be okay, right? Any Fair Isle folks have feedback?

The problem is, as usual, too little money. I'm also eyeing the Webs summer sale. They have yarn with CASHMERE in it for $14 a cone. They say it takes no more than 2 cones to make an average sweater. I could have a sweater with CASHMERE in it for $28! Does that seem crazy to anyone else? Quick, somebody, transport me to my yarn closet so I can stand there and realize that I do not have the need or money or time for anymore yarn!!!

Sigh

I started this post a whole three days ago! I got distracted by dinner and since then it's just been one distraction after another. I am nearing the finish lines on Purple Penny but still not as close as I'd like to be. I'm experiencing a bit of a knitting slump because I am ready to move on to new projects! Also, I don't think Purple Penny is quite long enough, despite my effort to ensure it would be by using another shirt I like the length on to measure it against. As you can see, I just lack the arm and collar ribbing. I'm about two rows from binding off on one arm now, so just collar and one arm to go. So close, yet so far away. I should have nothing to do but knit tonight, so maybe it will get close.

In other news, we joined a gym this week and man am I sore! It's a good feeling, though. I have discovered the trick for me to spend more time on the bike. Magazines! I've decided that I'll buy different magazines as needed and allow myself to only read them when I'm working out. Reading the boring section of the newspaper that was laying on the ground beside my bike yesterday even helped, so I know it will help to read something I'm really interested in. I'm also getting a real start to my thesis this week, so I don't expect to get a whole lot of knitting done in the coming months. I'm excited about it, but it will be a true test of my undisciplined self to get it finished.

Lunch Break

Went to the yarn store on my lunch break today and left with (gasp) nothin'! I am having some problems deciding on my next project for me, probably due to the fact that I have two in progress that must be completed before I move on to another project for me. :-) I would kind of like to make a poncho but I am concerned about it's wearability. I spend the vast majority of my time in "professional" clothes, so while the fun and funky ponchos appeal, I don't think I'd get to wear them much since I wouldn't wear them to work. So, I'm trying to decide if there's a way to make a professional poncho. Any suggestions?

I worked on Purple Penny more last night and got about an inch into the bottom ribbing. One more inch to go and I get to put the eyelets in. I hope to finish this one up by the end of the week. We're having some friends over Saturday night and I'd love to wear it! The ribbing is a bit slow going, though, so we'll see.