Citron progress

I have finished Row 18 of the 5th section. The pattern calls for 5 sections of 20 rows and a border section of 12 rows. I am definitely doing two more sections. I will never wear it if I stop at this size. I know the pattern makes more of a shawlette, but if this thing will never cover my shoulders, I think I would fling it across the room and leave it there. Maybe if I knit every day...I'll be done before the snow flies! Two more sections is 40 more rows, and these are biiiig rows that get over 600 stitches across. Eeep!

I also want to pick up a project from last fall - a wedding gift of a cabled pillow for my sister that I lost momentum on as the wedding drew closer. I figure if I can finish it by her 1 year anniversary then I'm in the clear. And I think that switching from working on my lace weight Citron to a worsted weight project will make the rows fly by! If you happen to look at the project in Ravelry, I have more knit than shows on the project page. Honestly I do! I just haven't updated the photo. Which I will do. Tonight. Really.

look it'S my hat!

My friend Emily just sent me a picture little man Xavier modeling his baby shower gift, the berry hat I made in the spring. Hooray! It looks great and look at that smiley kid. Thanks Em!

Knitting updates

I thought it was time for some knitting updates so here we go. I usually end up burying my thoughts on proejcts on various Ravelry pages, but this time I'm putting those comments in both places, since people seem to check here and not in the notes section.

***Disclaimer***
If pigs start flying and the people these things are intended for actually visit my blog, tough.

Berry Baby Hat
Started March 18, Finished April 6, 2009 for Tom and Emily's babe (maybe).
Not doing the weird knot thing at the top but just having a straight up stem. Finished except for binding off the stem and weaving in ends and blocking. Yay! This worked up pretty fast, so I might make some more. Though really - what colors are for boys? I had made this for a boy originally but a friend said that if it was for her that she wouldn’t have put her baby boy in a hot pink raspberry hat. Eh. Do I give it to them anyway? It's really cute, and they're not ones to only dress their boy in blue, but raspberry? It's progressive, right?

Baby Comfy Kimono Sweater
Started July 13, 2008 (before a baby was in sight) for Tom and Emily's babe.
I need to make one more front panel, then stitch it all together. The baby shower is on April 26, three weeks away. I need to mail the sweater and hat to a friend in order to get the gifts there in time since I will not be able to go to the shower.

Baby Blanket
Started Feb 3, 2009 for Ayondela's babe.
I've been working on this for two months now and it measures 23-24 inches. It needs to be 30-36 inches before I can start decreasing. If I fudge it a little. Am I ever going to finish this thing? I'm supposed to have it done by the baby shower May 9. Granted, I've also made a cowl and berry hat from start to finish, and worked on the baby sweater, but still - this project was supposed to be fast and easy. Why oh why didn't I use larger needles???

Oh, and there's one other project that I have in mind as a gift this year. I don't know if there's enough time to make it, if I have the skill to make it, or if I will lose my mind. I've already bought the yarn for this project and found an insanely complicated lace pattern. I don't think I'll even be able to touch it until May. Maybe I should reconsider...

Snoozing in the wings...
Babette blanket and Irish hiking scarf. These two fill in the gaps when I don't have other pressing projects, though I've had pressing projects since November. Oops!

Silence and Snow

I can't believe that I've been so quiet on this blog. My mind is always working away, thinking of posts, worrying, planning, dreaming, worrying...Okay, so it makes sense then that I haven't posted, because once again I'm stuck in my internal world.

Work and worrying about finances has taken up most of my mental space. Finances at work, at home, and world-wide are unstable. I can't read the paper or blogs about finance anymore because I get scared. I know a lot of people who are struggling in this economy. Heck, they were struggling before things got "bad". This is the first time I've worried about my company going under. It's not really comforting to know that we're okay for now, but who knows what the fall looks like? Should I be running around throwing my revamped resume' at anyone who will take it? Maybe I should start with updating my resume'.

I keep putting these posts in here as drafts. I have 4 different posts waiting to be finished and let out of the queue, but somehow I don't get back to blogger to release them.

Okay, here's what I came on here to say, and then I'll spend some time tomorrow night pulling the other posts into the daylight.

I am writing on here because I'm going to do my first bar increases in knitting. That's when you knit in the front and in the back of the same stitch to add a stitch. I've done yarn over, make one, wrap and turn, but not bar increase. I'm working on the left sleeve for a baby sweater and I'm nervous. Why would this make me nervous when I'm planning a major lace project? Who knows. Everything makes me nervous lately.

I haven't posted any pictures of the sweater yet - here or on ravelry. I have the back panel and left side finished. Last night I ripped out the right side because I was going to have to start a new ball in the middle. The sweater pieces are small enough that I don't have to do that. I just wasn't thinking when I started knitting the right side last week.

And my cowl? 1.5 rows left. Winter is almost over. I should be working on this and nothing else. But in order to do that last row I have to start another ball of yarn. ARGH! I keep going back and forth between leaving that last row off and finishing, and knowing that if I don't do the pattern right it's going to bother me forever because the edges won't match.

Stitching plans

A lot of my friends are making gifts this year both as Christmas presents and for selling at craft fairs and a sci-fi convention that's happening in January. They flurry of actvity is high - with yarn, beads, thread, origami paper, and more being turned into beautiful wearable art. I myself have been stitching teeny tiny stitches on cross stitch ornaments. One was for an exchange I took part in (see earlier post). I have stitched one more and am trying to wrap up the tiny lettering on a third. Can't post pictures just yet as there is the chance that the recipients might see them here.

Oh, and I've just decided to add a knitting project into the mix as a Christmas present too. What am I thinking??? I don't even have the yarn yet. Tonight after work I am dashing to Windsor Button to get the yarn and needles, and meeting my friend Cassandra so she can show me the pattern. Nevermind that before I went away for Thanksgiving she wrote the pattern down for me and demonstrated the difficult bits on one she was making. Nevermind that I already made a gauge swatch, I have no memory of the pattern!

At last, it's finished

This is a picture of my sister Kristin and her husband Doug. I stitched this wedding sampler for them originally as a wedding present for their wedding on October 20, 2007. When I realized that I wasn't going to finish in time, I got them somemthing else for the wedding, and instead I gave this to them for Christmas. As you can see in the picture, I'm not very good at framing. This is the first time I've framed anything, and I used the sticky mounting board. There must be a technique to it, because it still doesn't look straight within the mat. I hope they like it. I enjoyed stitching it, but there was so much tiny detail it took forever! I think I worked on it every night for a month, but then I would need a break and avoid it for two weeks. I started it in April I think, so it took me 9 months.

Resisting Temptation

Why does it take all of my strength lately to resist buying more cross stitch supplies?

I have just started a gift project, and received the supply order I placed last week for the threads and fabric to start the 18th Century Mystery Sampler in The Gift of Stitching, but i want more. I also have some other WIPs, and the freebie kits that came with my last few issues of The Cross Stitcher UK.

Right now I'm looking at the it designed by Sheila Hudson, a vase of anemones. It's very pretty and comes with yellow aida cloth, the threads (presorted), and a needle even! Why do I think i need more projects to work on? More fabric? More threads? I also feel like I need more hoops for holding my work, but I have a tendency to want to leave pieces stretched. I know that's not good, that it'll mark the fabric, so I'm trying to avoid getting more hoops. That way, I can have a max of 3 projects stretched at once, and if I want to switch to something else, I have to take one out of the hoop. That's good isn't it?