Delinquent Blogger

I have excuses.  Do you want my excuses?  Not really?  Well, you're getting them anyways coz it'll make me feel better.
1.  Work has been stupid busy and I have zero drive to accomplish anything when I get home.
2.  I am working on a sweater.  It's a really easy pattern (read: boring).  I no longer want to finish it.  Motivation ~= 0
3.  Sleep.  Yep, I have been actually getting a decent night's sleep lately.  This cuts into knitting time.

Okay, excuses are done.

What the heck have I done since I last blogged?  It's been a while.  HOLY!

Good thing my ravelry can be sorted by "most recently completed"

TA DA! SO, I finished a baby blanket that I've had on the go FOREVER!  So pleased!  And then I packed it up in a drawer, didn't take any pictures and called it done.  Woops.  I must admit, I still don't have a plan for this blanket.  I kind of figured it was for a baby boy.  A friend of mine is having a baby boy, but I already started another blanket for that one.

A picture!  With the border!

Repeat pattern.  I love it though!

I finally finished my rust tweed shrug - again, I did not take a picture, but I have been wearing it.  It's REALLY freaking warm.  Glad I got it done by the end of the winter (being that it's March winter has not yet left us, but it is tantalizingly close to spring... pfft... sweaters).

Best image I have.  I know, it's hard to see.

The L'infinita cowl I was working on gained completion (and photos!  Why have I not blogged this yet?) and then I wore it non-stop.  OMG  I love that thing.

GORGEOUS

I don't seem to ever wear it long.  But it is a lovely colour.

Of course, I did more stash-busting and made yet another baby sweater.  I might have to take all the things out of my drawer (you know, the non-existent baby stash for possible future?) and take a picture just to let you folks all know how out of hand this is getting.

Awww....

Okay, so that's everything I've finished recently... how about things I've started.

Starting with the sweater that is sucking my will to live.  "Look how cute it is!  oh and look how easy it is!  I'll just make it for my sister's birthday.  It'll be so fun and easy.  Awww..."  @$*&;%!  I think I have something ridiculous like 250 stitches on my needles at the moment and what I get to do to those 250+ stitches is seed stitch.  FML.  Seriously... why did I think this would be a good idea????  This sweater is WAY too boring.  It consists of stockinette stitch and seed stitch.  It is easy though.  But man, where did my motivation go?  Out the window?  With the fun?  Oh yeah, that's where it went.  I'm hoping when I finally get it off the needles that it will be super super cute and well worth the agony of a FREAKING BORING PROJECT.  **Note to self** you are no longer a beginner.  Stop attempting beginner patterns.  You hate them.
(I am a really really bad blogger and wrote this a couple weeks months ago.  I have since finished this god awful thing.  It's cute.  Sister seems to like it.  Feeling less rage.)

Somehow it looks better when folded in half

FINALLY FINISHED!

Then... remember that gorgeous yarn I bought at the "mayan apocalypse sale".  Ya know, she who dies with the biggest stash wins?  I think I'm about 3 balls into my lap-ghan that I'm making with it.  (I made the pattern a lot thinner).  I love working on this, therefore, it is getting my attention instead of the aforementioned sweater.  Sadly, this means I had to put a moratorium on this lap-ghan in order that I might actually get the sweater done for deadline #2 (deadline #1 came and went and I was not finished - deadline #2 is when Katy gets back from school - March 18th.  gah!)

Love the yarn.  Going to be quite the teeny blanket though.

Mmmkay... so now all I have to do is go take a whole ton of pictures and put them in this freaking post - otherwise... Most.  Boring.  Post.  Ever. (Took me waaaay too long to get pictures, but I did it!)

Back to Reality

Well, I apparently was too busy to post over the holidays?  (I really wasn't - but I WAS having a good time)

So, being that this is the New Year and all, I made myself some crafting related resolutions.  Pretty much entirely because I spent a good 3 days cleaning up all the files in my craft room so that they were useful and not just a garbage pile (are we sensing a theme?  I'm sensing a theme.)  So now I need to keep the momentum up.  My crafting resolutions are simple and, hopefully, effective.

1. Finish All Hibernating Projects - this is the biggest and the hardest.  It would mean that I finish my cleopatra wrap and that lovely green-ish diagonal striped blanket that I've had in progress for ~4 years.  This would make me very happy (and make me feel like I *can* start new projects - not that I don't as is, but I feel guilty leaving these stragglers behind).
2. Wind My Nice Yarn Into Center Pull Cakes - I am beginning to have quite the stash (and not just of crappy walmart yarn) and none of it is really wound and that makes me not want to use it (even though it's amazing!)
3. Store Yarn / Supplies Better.  I currently have just a giant basket that is filled with random yarns (mostly crappy walmart yarn) and a little paper box beside it where I keep my scraps.  So, I'm thinking what this will entail is finding a creative way to store my knitting needles and properly storing all my newly wound hotness. :)

So, that's it.  Those are my crafting related resolutions.  I have quite the list upstairs in my teeny tiny craft room - this year my resolutions are MORE or DO rather than LESS.  I feel like that is a positive way of looking to the future.  More of the things you love and take action for things that need to be changed, rather than eat less, lose weight etc.  

Okay, less resolutions, more craftiness!

Let's see... so I'm taking that mittens and gloves galore class over at craftsy and I made some lovely thrummed mittens for my sister for Christmas.  They turned out AMAZINGLY even if I did have to rip a good portion out at first because my thrums were ginormous.  Katy seems to love them and they are super super warm.  

Little thrums (these are actually the big ones)

Mitten #1 = done!

DOS!  Dos mittens - yeah, my spanish sucks

And those slippers.  You know, the god-awful cabled slippers that were so much fun?  Yeah, they turned out awesome.  Mom is always wearing them and that almost (almost) makes all the work worth it.  Mom opened them, and Katy fell in love and asked for a pair (I said no.)

See, they turned out cute!  Worth it?

What else have I been up to over the holidays?

That rust cabled sweater?  Yeah... it's nearing completion.  Less than one ball of yarn left to go and I'm just ribbing away (though, admittedly, the ribbing is BORING.)

There's a relatively new yarn store here in Calgary called "The Loop" so I wandered over there for the "mayan apocalypse sale" she who dies with the biggest stash wins... lol.  Oh, right... the point of that... yeah, so I bought this yarn.  It was majorly on sale (I got 8 balls for $24!) and I started a lovely cable knit lap-ghan with it (seriously, it's going to be small, not sure I have quite enough yarn, but we'll see).

I started a seed stitch cardigan for my younger sister Katy's birthday (which is in January, so she is aware that it is coming and she picked out the colour, but it is in no way going to be ready for her birthday).

Oh right, and more about "The Loop".  My lovely friend Jess gave me the most wonderful birthday / Christmas gift and that was a knitting class.  So we went off to the loop for single skein sunday and started work on a pretty easy (very easy) cowl.  It's made with malabrigo yarn, so I am feeling incredibly spoiled.  

I feel pretty!  Oh so pretty!

In fact, I have been just spoiled in general this holiday.  There is nothing like the wonderful people in your life being excessively nice to you (this confuses me some, you know, I don't *need* all these nice things, and no one *has* to do this for me - Dave keeps telling me it's not because they have to, but because they want to, and that it just means my friends / family loves me) to make you realize just how wonderful your friends are and just how blessed you are.  This has been my greatest take-away from this holiday season - an overwhelming sense of love - and really, who could ask for anything more.

Halloween Colours - sort of.

Well, coincidentally, 2 of three projects I'm working on at the moment (well, 4 projects if you count seaming those #%&$ slippers!) are in Halloween colours.

I'm very pleased to report that my husband LOVES his socks.  He put them on last night the second he got home (I might have been a factor in that).  They were brand spanking new and just finished - so on his feet they went.  However, they are apparently "house socks" that will not be going outside of the house due to his fear of wrecking them.  (This means he loves them, right?)  Also, they're black!  GO GO HALLOWEEN!

black socks they never get dirty

the longer you wear them the stronger they get

I'm making huge strides in my Rust cabled shrug - LOVE this.  I am so excited to get finished it.  Currently I've finished the left arm and the back, and am just starting to go down the right arm!  It's actually a really simple "build" - knit the arm, back, arm in one piece, sew up arms, pick up stitches around the rest and make a nice little ribbed "cuff" not really sure how to describe it aside from "cuff" but that's not really what it is... Anyhow, once you've finished the "cuff" bit, you're done.  The majority of the "hard" stuff is the cables in the big long piece you make (arms / back), so I'm thinking I'm about half-way done?  Also, rust is approximately orange, so Halloween, right?

Starting the right arm!

And then there's this cowl.  You know, the one that wanted to grow up to be the cowl it always dreamed of being?  God, do I love this thing.  I am beyond excited about the progress I've made on it in the past couple weeks.  It's currently blocking on my ironing board.  It will require some grafting after that, but really, it's pretty much done.  LOVE!

blocking!

The second it was sewn up, I wore it to work. 

See, Halloween and lots of love.  This is a great post.  :)  I'm assuming the next one will focus on these god-forsaken slippers (so, it will be less full of love and more full of frustration / rage).  I have this funny feeling that I'm not going to make 3 pairs of these.  Maybe just one.  We will have to see how these ones come out because if they're really THAT gorgeous and I can figure out how to sew them together properly, I MAY make more.  However, they're a TON of work and I could make so many other more amazing things that don't take NEARLY this kind of effort.  GAH!

Where did July go?

I think I missed a month.

No seriously.  I don't really remember doing all that much in July.  I know there was a week or two - one of those being Stampede of course.  And then it was August.  Huh.  It's a sign I'm getting old - that I'm sure of. Remember when every single day was packed full of amazing things to the point that you were on the verge of exhaustion at all times, but had so much fun doing it?  Yeah, I just don't have the energy for it anymore.

Stampede!

Anyhow, projects!  I've been busy - but still suffering from project ADD.  Ooooh... that's fun - oh! oh!  I should do that - how about this? - wasn't I supposed to be working on socks.  Right. socks. - NEW YARN!

And that... is my downfall

BUT... I still got a couple projects finished.  It's amazing I get anything done at all.  Seriously.

Anyhow, working my way through single balls of yarn lately.  For no purpose other than I have them.  So, I started a bajillion projects.  They're small... how much trouble can it really be?

So, there was the amazing cowl that I'm working on that I do not have enough yarn for.  :(  The problem being that I really like the cowl.  It's turning out beautifully, so I'm going to have to order one more ball of yarn so that it can be the cowl it always dreamed of being.

And then there was that strange neck-warmer thing.  I think it's supposed to be actual outerwear - like to wear with your winter jacket?  It is FAR too tiny and tight for that.  Thus, it will be more of an accent piece for my winter wardrobe (yes, I know it's the middle of freaking summer - so what if I'm working on winter projects.  The only one who suffers is me.)

See, kind of hard to wear, but cute.

THEN... I went to Pudding Yarn at lunch.  OMG.  That is evil.  Who on Earth suggested that it would be a good idea to go to yarn shop on my lunch break, thus informing me that it is possible to get there, shop and back to work during lunch hour???  Craziness.  When I was there, I found this one little gorgeous ball of watermelon (I think it's the right colour and it looks delicious, so why not call it watermelon?) yarn.  It is Schulana Kid-Seta, so incredibly soft and incredibly airy.  So, I made a shawl.  But, I only had one ball of yarn and it didn't quite make it to the end of the pattern, but it'll do.  ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS.

Blocking blocking blocking

Detailing