Excuses, excuses

But I have a good one this time. If my situation wasn't clear, I am home from college for the summer. I live with my parents and my little brother and sister. Last week my mother went out of town to help my grandma so basically I was in charge of everything (my siblings are pretty useless) which meant my time to myself was a bit limited. We also foster kittens and so there were some that required bottle feeding every few hours which is extremely time consuming. And also I started back at work finally. Point being, not a lot of knitting happened.

However, the Dollar and a Half Cardigan is getting there. I have finished both of the front pieces. Here is a picture of the right front relaxing in the windowsill, one of my cat's favorite spots as well.
I realized when I was decreasing for the armhole that I did not exactly do it correctly on the left front. It wasn't a huge deal, so I just decided to duplicate the mistake on the right front. I am currently about a foot into my first sleeve, which seems a little too big. I am knitting the smallest size, but actually it all seems a little too big. We'll see.

I don't believe that I ever shared with you all pictures of my knitting needle case that boy made for me. Although he disagrees, I really like it and it is nice to have everything in one place.

And yes, the boy sews. However, I must clarify that (except for this) he sews very manly things. Check out his blog. He does custom orders for tactical gear and things with webbing and nylon and sometimes he uses a lighter. It's all very ridiculous but he is good and has actually made a lot of money off of it and everything. I am proud of him for breaking gender stereotypes. But anyway, I picked out the fabric and gave him a rough idea of what I wanted and this is how it turned out! An excellent Christmas present, I must say.

As I promised last time, I have pictures from Beastly Knits. I found this book at used book sale and I couldn't resist its tackiness. I am probably breaking all sorts of copyright laws by posting these images, but they're just so awesome!

Look at that guinea pig!

This one cracks me up.

There are a couple more pictures on my flickr if you would like to see them. I am almost tempted to knit one. Maybe not a sweater, but I am sure that the charts would come in handy for something. So hilarious. I mean the title really just says it all.

Next time perhaps I will share my ideas for a friend's birthday present. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I cannot believe mine is 1/4 over already.

Sunday again?

Has it really been a week since I last posted? Summer is really flying by, it's practically June already. I have been steadily progressing on the Dollar and a Half cardigan. I feel like a serious knitter getting this much accomplished. If only I had this kind of time all year round. But I guess that is what happens when you have no school, no friends, no job, and your boyfriend still hasn't moved back home yet. Those last two things will change soon, but I still will have many, many productive hours.

The back has been finished. Gosh I hope that all blocks out.

I have begun working on the left front which is the regular stripey bit, not the part with the cable. I only have a few inches left on this piece; I've passed the difficult decreasing bits. It's a bit like rubbing your belly and patting your head. You have to decrease on different sides atknit different rates and keep up the pattern all at the same time. I ended up writing it all out so I wouldn't have any mistakes. As it is, I'll probably have enough. See how the reverse stockinette looks all weird? That's because I knit really tight and I purl very loosely and it makes it all quite uneven. I've been trying to knit looser etc., but it's not happening.

I do love this yarn though! Here it is snuggled up with my many piles of books.


Once this cardigan gets done, then perhaps I will work on making call number spine labels for all my new books. There's almost 60 that need them, unfortunately, I do not think there is any room on the shelves.


Next post I will give you all a glimpse into the horrific patterns contained in "Beastly Knits," which I got a book sale. I couldn't pass it up.

Trust me.

The knitting is getting done. I have almost a foot of the Dollar and a Half Cardigan. I am pretty impressed with myself actually. But I am not going to talk about that, I am going to show you pictures of pretty things.

Mom and I went out and picked some flowers from the yard and it resulted in this:

Although we stole some of the lilacs from our neighbor's yard because his smell better.


This is what I am reading or what I'm about to read. For more information about my reading habits, visit my other blog. (I know I have problems with blogs, but this is more of a personal record than anything for the public.)

Although it is cut off in the picture, I checked out Rowan's Vintage Knits. I absolutely love practically every design in this book. I will probably have to buy a copy. It has become my goal to knit through the whole book, although the boundaries of this goal are very, very broad. Also, the one male model in the book is rather dashing.

More knitting next time. Anyone have any ideas about what to do with 500 yards of some Karaoke yarn, 50% wool and 50% soy silk. It's really nice, but the amount is a bit odd. Not enough to make a top, but a lot for an accessory. I'm thinking a vest?

Dollar and a Half Cardigan

Well I've begun a new project, against my better judgment. If you recognize this...

It really is against my better judgment, not just because I need to actually finish something, but because all the comments on Ravelry are about how terrible this sweater is and how it's going to be frogged. I am probably going to end up in the same boat, but for now, I'm going for it. I didn't really bother to swatch because I'm really not a fan. I know, I know, it is the worst habit. If I do swatch I usually just knit something very small to make sure I'm on the right track. Besides, with this pattern, the swatch is the lace pattern and that didn't make much sense to me starting out and so I ended up just ripping out the ribbing a few times. I usually knit things for chest size 36, but since I was using bigger needles, I cast on the small size instead of the medium. But even that was way too big, like 22 inches instead of 17 or something. I ripped it and started over with smaller needles. It is going okay for now, but I think I will take the recommendations from Ravelry and knit the reverse stockinette with even smaller needles.

But the yarn is pretty! I'm using Classic Elite Skye Tweed in Scottish Mist. It will be a nice neutral cardigan. I need a good one in grey anyway.

This tree is blooming outside my window and it is lovely.

Summer at last

Finally, after a couple weeks of late night paper writing, I am free. The semester is over and I don't go back for four months and when I do I will be spending it in London. Yay.

I have begun regular knitting again. I am so tempted to start new projects, but so far I have been sticking with the Shifting Sands scarf from last post. Knit some of it today while watching my brother march in my town's Loyalty Day Parade. However, I'm afraid that the loud horns and candy throwing children distracted me, as I seem to have ended up with a few extra stitches. Oh well, I'll figure it out.

One of the nice things about being home is being able to cook my own food. It's very satisfying, in more ways than one. Today for lunch I made couscous off the recipe on the back of the box.

It was roasted pine nut couscous and the recipe had me add some olive oil, garlic, chicken broth, and asparagus (substituted with spinach). I added a piece of that microwavable chicken which is quite good despite its frozen nature.

My cat, Winnie, joined me as well. I think she missed me because she's been hanging around a lot more than usual. That, or she just likes to stare out the window at the fish that reside in our backyard pond.

Tonight I plan on swatching for the Dollar and a Half Cardigan. I have heard good things and bad things so we will see how it all goes.

Bonus cat photos: