Priceless

Priceless
Originally uploaded by samuraisqurl.

Single serve coffee maker: $15
Shipping: $5

The smell of coffee brewing in your house: priceless.

Gold medal

Gold medal
Originally uploaded by samuraisqurl.

Wow! How cool is this?! Definitely a thing of beauty. I'm going to make a t-shirt iron on and wear this out. That aughta get a few good stares. It was nice to come inside from a day of yardwork to find this on Steph's website. I've been eyeballing the minisweater I've got on the needles ALL day but haven't had the opportunity to pick it up yet. As I type, I'm still covered in dirt and decorative bark debris. Shower? Hell no! The kids are hungry NOW!

Knitting Gold

Knitting Gold
Originally uploaded by samuraisqurl.

Here she is. Blocked and everything. After coming home from the store this afternoon, I saw she was still wet. So I threw her in the dryer. What? Don't look at me like that! I wanted a freakin photo of my finished sweater. No harm done. I did try it on and I think it looks pretty good. Since there is no one else here to take a picture I'll post another one later.
I've already started knitting on the Carroll bag and am looking around for something to knit up the Minisweater with. Worsted weight and 13sts/4" gauge? hmmmmm.....
The knitting olympics were a blast and I can hardly believe Steph finished her sweater. That is in-freaking-credible. You go girl. Yay for knitting!

Well, as you can see, I f#*@ed up my photos for the blog. I was trying to organize them into "sets" so that maybe I could link to a gallery of FO's. Anyway, obviously I've lost some of my photos.
Tubey is DONE. She is blocking on the bed and, um, well, seems a little stretched. I'm wondering if I threw it in the dryer for a minute if that would be okay or if I should just leave it be until its totally dry. The fact that I finished it is about the only good thing going on today. I seem to have a bad case of the pms's and I'm sick of being sick! Anywhoo. As soon as she's dry I'm going to get a good picture of her on. I think it came out pretty good for being knit in 16 days. I can't believe that I finished a whole sweater in only 16 days! Yay for me! Now I'm going to finish Aaron's sweater, my Carroll bag and then a poncho for Maya.

the patient

Well, here she is. She wedged herself were the kids can't miss her in case they want to throw her scraps or she won't miss anything they accidentally drop. I was going to get her running to the window to bark at the Fed Ex guy but I wasn't fast enough. Thats right: RUNNING. She has soreness and is uncomforterable but there is nothing seriously wrong with her. She is going to be okay and she's improved about 100% since we got her home, but she won't go in the backyard. ?? Maybe a snake bit her? Hmmmm. Maybe there's a baby gator back there. Racoon? Squirrel? Feral Cat? Opposum? Buzzard? Snapping turtle? Who knows. Incidentally, I've seen all these critters in my yard. Ahhh, Florida. Swampy livin at its finest. Also, today; 77 degrees. Will this tubey even get worn?!

Tubey 2/23

Tubey 2/23
Originally uploaded by samuraisqurl.

Here she is. Evidence that between sneezing,shivering, cooking, cleaning and nursing I have knitted on Tubey. Note: sick gauge is looser than healthy gauge. I noticed my sts were a little bigger and looser last night. Thankfully, I only messed the k3p1 rib once and that was while watching "Curse Of The Were-Rabbit". Tonight, I'm considering hauling off to the lys for the sit n knit to work on it. I gotta get out of this house!

3 Days Left?!

Oiy. Well, I was reading the comment left on my last post (yay! somebody visited the blog!) and was thinking,"ya, only a few days left. I've only got like 8" left to knit on the body and we. Are. Done." No problem, right? Well, not if you've got to sit on the phone with the bank for a while trying to cancel a payment you sent to a long cancelled credit card and administer several medications to one sick child while making several fresh fruit snacks for the other one's breakfast while she tells you all about her dream last night in a loud shouting voice after you got up early and are now progressing into the hacking up of the phlegm stage of the flu. Then you realize the reason your doggy hasn't been following you around like usual is because she is HURT! So we are off to the vet. This week has sure been interesting. I hope Roxie is allright. She is definitely well enough to slowly walk across the room to where the cheese popcorn is so she's not too bad but definitely in pain. Tubey pics and doggy diagnosis when we return...

Thanks Marisa!

Only five days left to go. I stayed up way late Sunday night knitting the stripe, then slipping the sts onto a scrap yarn so I could try the sucker on and make sure I wasn't making some sort of mutated version and it looked great. The opening is a bit wide and I'll probably have to seam that so my bra straps don't show but other than that it looked great! Yay!
So between Sun night and now I have completed 9 inches of body tube. Also, the whole family has managed to come down with a cold in that time, and Aaron had an asthma attack to boot. He's just fine now and the whole time I was driving him to the Dr's office I was asking him,"Are you okay? Can you breath okay?" He would reply between pant like breaths, "Ya. I'm okay. Can we go to Buger King?" What can I say? He's a tough little dude. In fact he held up a whole lot better than his Momma.
So now that its way late on Tues night and I've got the chills and working on 6 hours sleep for the past 48 hours, I'll be going to bed now.

GO TEAM USA!!

Feb 19 tubey

Feb 19 tubey
Originally uploaded by samuraisqurl.

Well, with only six days left to finish, I've finally gotten the body on the shrug. I'm beginning to seriously doubt my ability to read a pattern correctly. I kept casting on and picking up stitches for the body tube and was short 50 every time! It was almost to the point where I thought I'd have to either get help from someone at the lys or scrap my olympic knitting project. After a nights rest, I laid the sucker out on the kitchen table and scrutinized the pattern diagram vs my knitted product. Turned out I was misreading the directions when it came to where to put the markers and how to pick up the sts between them. Sigh.
So, after finally getting it right (sorta) I've made almost 5" of progress on the body. I think I'm gonna keep this stripe at 6" max (as you can see my planning skills also leave something to be desired) then I'll continue in black to the bottom.
In other knitting news, I cast on and worked about 24 rows in the Carroll bag. I don't know if I should be using such large needles for that yarn. The fabric is so flimsy! I can't imagine it will feel thick at all after I felt it. Hmm. I'm considering doubling up. We'll see.

tubey: day 6

tubey: day 6
Originally uploaded by samuraisqurl.

Well, after good progress the first 2 days, I stalled out! That first sleeve just about killed me! I knit it 21" (a whole extra inch than the pattern calls for) and when I tried it on, it was short!!! I left the end unsecured so I could go back and knit some more on it if it doesn't come out right. Also, the back seems a bit on the long side. When I finish this sleeve, I will know if the shrug is too big. I took the kids to the mall's playground and let them burn off some energy (and some of my guilt for keeping them cooped up while I knit like a madwoman) and began sleeve #2. I've gotten about 12" into it. Only 9 more inches to go. Sigh. I really was counting on being done with the shrug by this point, leaving me ten full days to focus on the body tube. I'm not even sure about where I'm putting my stripe yet! I'm still unsure if I'm at to slow a pace or not but I'm starting to wonder if I'll get enough sleep for then next nine days. I don't do well without my beauty z's. I'm also starting to feel my mind go blank when I see the black wool. Looking over at my pattern last night, instead of Tubey, there was this. Also, the kids and I stopped by lys for some yarn for a new project.

carroll bag

carroll bag
Originally uploaded by samuraisqurl.

I bought some Cascade 220 to make this bag. The pattern came in the mail last week. Now I wish I had waited and gone tonight to the Knit In at the lys to buy it. I think the kids and I need a break.

Weekend Progress

tubey
Originally uploaded by samuraisqurl.

Okay, first weekend of the Knitting Olympics has produced this. 23 inches (who knew I had such broad shoulders?! For cryin out loud!!) of the back and about 4 inches into the sleeve. When I cast on on Friday, I mistakenly used the second number for sizes when casting on. 3" in, I realized I could keep the small size cast on and just knit the cross back measurement however long I needed. Duh. So I got about 12 inches in on Fri night. Then Sat, I didn't get much time to knit during the day, but that night I got to to end of the cross back and was able to do some sleeve yesterday. I'm using the Magic Loop for the sleeve and while its nice not to have lots of needles to fool around with, I'm having a hard time making my stitches look as even and neat with the circular! Also, this yarn...I wish I had chosen something else to knit it with. There are broken and fuzzed plies everywhere and loose strands of yarn wound into the balls which is better than an ugly knot holding it all together, but I guess with the price tag and all, I assumed the yarn would be different. I don't know how I feel about microfiber. hmmm.
Today is cold (ha ha!) here. We're only getting to like, ahem, 54 degrees for the high. Sweater weather finally!! But don't worry, by the end of the week we'll be at 79 degrees! So anyway, all I have to do today is:
dishes
school
mop
bathrooms
laundry
cook
knit
Lets see how far I can get by tommorow morning. I have no way of knowing if my pace is good or bad! I keep thinking of knitting that body tube....maybe I should do a couple of rows right now!

Go Team USA!!!

Almost time....

I'm so excited to start these olympics that I had to do an early post. Note for the future: if you join a knit a long that is going to require speed knitting DO NOT do upper body workout beforehand! My arms, chest and back are so SORE I can barely lift my arms up to take off my clothes!! Needless to say there will be lots of stretching going on to ensure my neck doesn't lock up on me (as it does when I knit intensely). Meanwhile, more stuff to distract from the growing anticipation of the start of this global event: This is the most brilliant cartoon I've ever seen! Mike and I rented the four-disk set and episode 9 is sheer genius. We laughed until we cried. If you have netfilx, or are interested enough in anime, check it out. Its good stuff.

GO TEAM USA

Baby sweater
Originally uploaded by samuraisqurl.

Wow! Less than 24 hours to go for the start of the Knitting Olympics! I didn't think I would be this excited but I am! Meanwhile, I started that baby sweater from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Alamanac and then coincidentally found the Almanac Along! So I've joined but have yet to get the button on. Anyway, its February so I'm right on track with the baby patterns and all. I LOVE this yarn: Cascade 220 in a greeny grass color. The sweater has definitely taken the edge off the excitement for the Olympics to start. That and going to the gym. Today was cardio...ugh. I ran for 40 min. Ugg. The only thing that took the pain away was some Duran Duran and this:

Dale Of Norway
Originally uploaded by samuraisqurl.

This is (the back of) a Dale Of Norway pattern book I could not resist buying at the lys. Hello? I don't think baby knits get any better than these. The only downside to carrying this around with me are all those "knowing" looks I get like I'm expecting or trying to conceive. Ya girls, thats why I'm running for 40 minutes on the treadmill, so I can get pregnant again. I'm thinking of knitting something out of here for Lee's little girl Claudia since the cotton sweater I knit for her is too small. There are also some booties and this hat I want to knit too. Like I didn't have enough going on right?

Almost time

gearing up
Originally uploaded by samuraisqurl.

Quick post to show that I've somewhat gathered my materials for the Olympics (I don't think those were the right size needles I just grabbed em for the picture). ONE MORE DAY and then it shall begin....

Okay enough dramatics.
I don't think I've done this much knitblogsurfing ever in my life and I have to say how exciting and inspiring it is to see all these other people who love the same things you do! Not to mention all the other crazy, er, dedicated knitters out there who are participating in the knitting olympics. 3000 plus is hard to imagine! I think I'll work out the gauge tonight and triple read through the pattern so that no surprises jump out at me. The past two patterns I've worked have come out wrong because I didn't read them carefully enough. Minimum amount of intelligence required to knit? Hmmmm, not sure if I've got it. But I've got the love, baby.

GO TEAM USA!!

In other news....

tangerine soaker
Originally uploaded by samuraisqurl.

This is something I've been working on for like, a month. I redid the freakin' crotch seam at least 5 times and the cuffs at least 10. Needless to say that they are still too small for a baby's thigh so they will be ripped and redone. Again.

January knitting update

February already! Yikes! As a matter of fact, I think the Olympics begin this weekend. Double yikes! I need to work up a gauge swatch for Tubey sometime this week. I’ve also begun preparing the family for this knitting event by telling them they are on their own during Mommy’s knitting time. I wish now that I had chosen something different to knit; specifically some baby clothes to donate to Afghans for Afghans or some other charity. Its probably too late to change, goodness knows Stephanie and her crew are busy enough without getting emails from wishy-washy knitters saying they want to change their event! So I began a baby sweater (pattern from Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitters Almanac) to give and I wanted to knit some socks and hats and ship them all at once. What? What other projects? I’ve decided not to beat myself up over my growing list of ufo’s. It’ll all get done eventually. There is one glaring problem however: My husband needs socks and I NEED a sweater! Realize that the coldest its been outside during the day here so far this winter has been 50 degrees. Sweater weather indeed, but I’ve managed to get by with sweatshirts and layers of t-shirts. There is the wool jacket that needs a dry cleaning but that is old and too heavy. I repeat I NEED a sweater. So I’ve been browsing yarn and patterns (gasp of horror I know) and the most likely candidate has been determined to be the Ribby Cardi from Chicknits. I didn’t like the original picture from the site, but looking at some of the cardi’s that have been knit on blogs and other sites, it looks like a cute and versatile design. I can use the Cascade I bought for Cherie and frog back what I’ve started there. Although I really like Cherie, I need something that’s not a pullover. Meanwhile, since I posted last, I’ve knit these:

kitties from Knitty

kitties from Knitty
Originally uploaded by samuraisqurl.

Here are some "Kate's" I knit after getting a wild urge one Friday. It was only a matter of time before I gave into the silly cuteness of Kate. Maya insisted hers be limb-free and Aaron uses his as a football.

And in other news....

lace blanket
Originally uploaded by samuraisqurl.

this lace blanket I originally planned for Lee's baby....

Became this....

Originally uploaded by samuraisqurl.