And The Winner Is...

Lillyanka! Congratulations!

I've sent you an email, but if you see this first, please contact me asap with your address and some yummy yarn and the gorgeous White Lies Designs pattern will be coming your way!

Reluctantly Sharing

This is a rarity in my world - The two indoor kitties sharing a sunbeam. Notice how they sit with their backs to each other? Yeah, no love lost here. He's (the yellow cat and 16 lbs.) taking a bath and she's (10 lb. if she's wet brown kitty) very prim and proper and ignoring the hell out of him. They share like my kids share, very poorly.

Reluctantly Sharing a Sunbeam

I've started on one of the sleeves of the shrug part of the sweater and I'm doing this part with two circs. It's moving along pretty steadily so far.

We're off tonight to the Fall Festival at the Eldest's school tonight. I'm just hoping we don't lose the Youngest in the crowds there. He's a runner and refuses to hear anyone telling him to stop. It kinda sucks that he's too old to be in a stroller now. Oh well, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right? :)

Forgot to Add: Contest results will be here tomorrow!

I made jewelry!

Today is my Sister-In-Law's Birthday!

I made her something special. Wanna See?

This is the first necklace that I have made. Took me half the day to figure out how I wanted it done. It had to be silver, have lots of blues and greens and still be somewhat delicate. I think it came out great. It's approximately 17".

This jewelry making stuff could be addicting!

Tubey!

Tomorrow is the last day of the Contest! Thanks so much for everyone who has participated. I apologize if I have not gotten back with all of you in some form or other. I will, I'm just slow thanks to all the sickness floating around this house right now. The Eldest is beginning week four of a stomach ailment. He has lab work being done now to pinpoint what's wrong and hopefully we'll get this thing cleared up.


I cast on for the Tubey Sweater from Knitty yesterday. I had a hard time wrapping my head around the sizing directions. You measure across your back from the center of one armpit to the other with your arms forward. I got that measurement (22") and went back to look at the instructions again. I heard that this sweater runs rather large, so I'm making the XS in this one. I just couldn't figure out where that 22" measurement went.

I ended up casting on for the wrong measurement cause I misread the pattern. She has the across back measurement as 19[20, 21.5, 23, 24.5]. She also has the cast on numbers as 50[55,60,65,70]. I guess that I saw the 21.5 in the middle and thought that I should cast on 60. Duh. I was supposed to cast on 50 and then do stockinette for 21.5 (or 22 really.) So after about an inch or so I realized what i had done, ripped it all out and began again. I'm feeling rather blond right now, thank you very much.

This is where I stand as of carpool time at school this afternoon:


I'm going to do stripes similar to what she has in the picture on the pattern, but I'm going to do a coral red, turquoise blue and lime green stripes along with the basic black of the sweater. I'm currently going cross-eyed working with the black.

This is the part that goes across the back. I'll add sleeves next and will have a cute shrug when those are finished. Then all I have to do will be to add the tube part for the body. We'll see how long this project takes me. Lately, everything I touch seems to take forever.

Better Now!

I am now back in the land of the living. The whole household spent the weekend lounging around and being sick together. Wasn't a lot of fun really, especially with the hubby. He turns in to the biggest "woe is me" baby you've ever seen when he gets sick.

I did do some cat stacking though:




I also came to a few conclusions, mainly about the W sweater:

This project is now headed for the frog pile. If I ever decide to do another sweater that is knit side to side with short rows - please just shoot me.

Things that went wrong:

1. The yarn chosen was incorrect for the pattern. Evidently it was not meant to be used for sweaters of this type. Something more drape-y and less bulky would be good for this pattern. This yarn would be better suited to hats or afghans.
   

2. The finished edges were way too untidy and ugly in my opinion.

3. The v-neck front came down way too low and the fabric was actually too stretchy.
   

The short rows were actually easy and I didn’t mind doing them. What I did dislike was not being able to try the sweater on as I went so that I could adjust for fit. Definitely will not be making this pattern again.

I also started some sweater de-constructing. I have this old sweater, and when I say old, I do mean old. It still had shoulder pads! Anyway, it's very soft and I want to rework it somehow. So I began taking it apart. It's taking forever. It's very tiny 2 ply yarn, lace weight-ish. I was going to make a shawl with it, but I think that I'm going to split it into 1 ply and make it go further and use it to ply some of my other hand spun yarn with it.

Take a gander at what's in it:
30% Cotton
22% Nylon
20% Rayon
13% Lambswool
10% Angora Rabbit
5% Cashmere

Now are you getting how soft it is? Who knows if it really does have cashmere in it, I don't, but I also don't care. I'm going to overdye it from soft dove gray to something happier and ply that stuff up.

I've also cast on for a new sweater but I'll tell you more about that tomorrow!