Green Dress Goal

Not too much has been going on here..... Small progress here and there. I did the short row heel on G's sock, he tried it on & it had this odd spike kinda thing poking out of the heel. Ya, so I did too many decreases. I ripped the entire heel out & decided I'm doing a heel flap and he will just have to be happy that he's getting socks at all! LOL! I want to try to have them finished by his birthday- Feb 11th. I think I can do it. (I hope). I also cast on for Wicked, and did the collar, but nothing else so far. I got the yarn for the Hemlock Ring blanket, but haven't wound it or cast on yet. I got a bit of spinning done yesterday. A friend and I went to her friends house and did a spinning day :-) I haven't spun in a while, so that was nice.





I decided last weekend that it's time to take all this weight off that I put back on after working so hard to take it off in the first place. I did really well on Weight Watchers, so I'm back on it as of this past Monday. I'm doing really well so far & have already lost a few pounds :-) Yeah! I have a few weddings coming up (one in May & one in June) and I have this awesome green strapless dress that I want to wear to one of them, but I would have to take off a significant amount of weight to fit into it again. I'm not sure exactly how much I would need to loose, but if I remember my weight correctly from when I fit into the dress it would be around 30 pounds that I need to take off. I think 30 pounds in 5 months is a realistic goal... that would be what? 6 pounds a month? About a pound and a half a week? I think I can do it! So, for motivation, this is me in the dress in October 2005:

Looking at this picture though, I think I may have to take off more than 30-pounds- Yikes! I'll be starting to exercise this week too though, so hopefully that will help me lose inches as well as weight & get me to the *green dress goal* quicker! As an aside- my hair is so short there compared to how it is now!!

I haven't taken any pix yet of Wicked, so I'll try to take some & get them up next post. And I also made a bunch of stich markers this morning, so I'll take pix of some of them later too. I actually ran out of jump rings, otherwise I would have made more. Time for a trip to the craft store!

Look! A bandwagon!

I need to join EVERYTHING. Just HAVE to. No self control. Everyone is knitting socks? I must also. Wiked KAL? I'm in! Oh, and a Hemlock Ring Blanket KAL too? OK, count me in! For about 5 seconds I was working on one project at a time.... It was nice while it lasted, but I guess it's just not my style!




So, some pix!





Rob's mittens:
I still need to weave in the ends on the mittens. I have them all just tucked inside for now.


The beginnings of George's socks:

I'm thinking two more cable twists then I'll be ready for the heel. I guess I should look up how to do a short row heel, huh? Oh, and I'm loving those short sock needles!

And some yarn I dyed for Juli:

The subtle color variations don't show up as good in the pic as they are for real. This was supposed to be green, but it's yellow and green. I know it looks purely yellow in the pic, but trust me, there's green in there too!

Freaking Crackhead!!

I really don't know what I'm thinking half the time. I made *A* Jaywalker sock. Yes, *ONE* measly sock in my entire sock knitting history. Not a pair, *A* sock. So what do I think will be the next step? Yup, why not make up my own pattern for a pair of socks for hubby? It can't be all that hard, can it? Well, I'm thinking it will be fine, but I'll keep ya posted! I'm doing a 2x2 ribbed cuff with a mostly sockinette leg, but it has a cable running down the sides of the legs. I hope I placed the cables appropriately so they actually go down the sides of his legs and not the front & back... Not sure what kind of heel I'm gunna use, but he prefers the look of the short row heel over the heel flap. I've never done a short row heel, but I can do short rows, so I think I can wing it. And if I'm doing a short row heel I may as well figure out how to do a short row toe, right? The cable is a 4 stich cable with a one stich purl ditch. My issue (perhaps the first of many?) is that my smallest cable needle is too big, and when I try to cable w/o the needle the stiches drop & I have to crochet them back up, which is a total PITA to keep doing. I'm thinking a paperclip may work well here.

The hat & mittens for Rob are finished! Yeah!!!! I need to replace the batteries in my camera & I'll take some pix.

What else so I have in the works? I promised a Calorimity to the neighbor (she likes the one I wear to the bus stop in the mornings, so I told her I would make one for her) and being that we have nasty weather coming in I may work on that tomorrow & give it to her on Monday. I also want to make another Marsan Watchcap & give it to another neighbor. She tried on the one for Rob & it was so cute on her, so I think she needs one! And, I'm doing the Wicked KAL with Sharon from She-Knits (Check it out on Ravelry) so I have to print out the pattern, wind my yarn & swatch (GASP!!!!). Yes folks, you read that right, I'm gunna swatch for this one.

Then there's the baby to knit for! Anyone that reads Juli's blog knows that I'M GUNNA BE AN AUNT :-))) Yeah!!!!! She's due early Septmeber, so there's lots of knitting time ahead of us. I figure I'll make a few gender neutral items, that way if she winds up eventually having both genders she can re-use things, and then when we know what she's having I'll make some gender specific stuff. In either case, I plan on supplying this kid with all sorts of tie dye in addition to knitted garmets. I think I'll actually knit more stuffed animal than garments, since they'll get more use. And the tie dye is nice and quick. This is such a great excuse to buy more dyes and stamps and ink!

OK, that's it for now. I have to get back to G's sock.... He better like it or I'm poking him in the eye with my size 1 sock needle! He's SOOOO picky about what I make him, but he told me that if I just went ahead and made it he would be far less picky than he is when he's actually involved in the design process.

Attack of the Stash!!!

One of my 2008 Knitting Goals is to get a firm grasp on my stash... Organize it, gather it up from it random hiding places throughout the house, figure out what I actually own... all that scary stuff! So, I started taking pictures of what I have and putting it up on Ravelry, and OMG, I'm scared! LOL! I have way more than I thought! I definitely have to make an effort to knit from my stash more and buy less. I was at a yarn shop yesterday & saw some yarn that I thought would make a beautiful Branching Out scarf, then today I pulled out several skeins of lace yarn from my stash that were purchased specifically for branching out scarves! I'm glad I didn't buy that other yarn! I wound up getting a few skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash in pink and green that Devin picked out for me to make her a sweater with. I'm ok with that new purchase, since I don't currently have any other 220 Superwash, but I DO have some purple yarn that had been knit into 1/2 a sweater for her a while back. I think that will have to be ripped out & reknit into a sweater that will actually get finished! I'm slowly getting my stash up, but go have a peek if you're brave! Check it out here.

So, knitting pix.... I made a watch cap for the trade G made for the navagational charts & I'm 1/2 way through the mittens (one mitten made). I also finished my first sock :-) I haven't cast on the second yet, but I plan on doing so after I finish the mittens, then I plan on making socks for George. I haven't been knitting much the past few days since I've been organizing my stash. No spinning has been done either, but I expect to get back to that soon.

I tried on the hat:

Then I made G try it on. He didn't like it. He thought the blue was too femanine and the ribbing was "too fancy":Then when he saw the beginnings of the mittens he decided that the blue was in fact nautical and not too girley after all:And my first sock! Yeah!!!! One Jaywalker down, one to go :-)

And that's it for now. I'm getting back to putting my stash on Ravelry!