I get obsessed, I knit and knit and knit on one project it is crazy. This is how things get done, this is why when I have 3 or 4 projects on the needles I can go crazy!! I started The Everyday Tweed last week and I can't stop. I love the colors, a purple/green/gray this is for the Grey's Anatomy KAL. I suspect I will need another project before the season is over. This also means Sizzle, hasn't been sizzling at all. But these colors this pattern it is so pretty!!! And a close up of the pretty colors, ball one is knit all up. I hope I have enough of the Plain and Fancy to finish!

My niece has also taken an interest in my knitting, way back when I had some extra yarn and needles with me so she tried to knit, she sort of got, but not really. But she was interested that is the important part. So for her Birthday I got her a knitting machine, now don't think ohhh all fancy. You crank this one, it comes with 400 yards of eyelash yarn. I have yet to see it perform but I hear it is working great!! It sort of scares me.

I finally posted on the ISEIII blog, they made me do it. I don't want to get kicked out and all get blacklisted. I finished up the first half of the scarf and started up the second half. I am excited to finish it up so I can start one for me.

I wanted to also comment that even though I started Sunday Finishing, I skipped a week and then worked a tiny bit this past Sunday on seaming up Cutaway. Soon we will know if it is wearable or not! LimeBlue is wearable though, that is exciting!! Here is hoping that this Sunday with no plans can be Finishing Sunday, Mystery Stole and Cutaway are screaming at me!! Then there is the Noro cowl, and green gables to finish. All these projects are they having babies when I am not looking?

I have finished something, I recently realized as I was cleaning up pictures here at the blog that I haven't finished anything in a while. Wait, wait I finished 2 somethings. One of them I have no finished picture, oops. It is the Purple Gable for mom, she actually wore it yesterday. You know how you analyze your knitting all day the first time you wear something you have knit (I am not the only one right)? I think it might be worse when someone else wears a knitted item of yours, I kept thinking hmm maybe we need more increases for the hips, and is it too tight around the middle. Sorry mom. But she loves it or at least pretends too.

I have also finished the Lime Blue Cardi, I love this sweater but I need some advice here. I don't want to rip things back but do the sleeves look too funny, one has pooled a ton and well the other did not. I like the pooling and am quite sure I can't find a way in hell to replicate it, I might have a better chance to rip the pooling sleeve to look more like the unpooled sleeve. You tell me your opinions. Well see if I am lazy and rip, live with it or what. And now the picture of the two sleeves up close and personal.

So girls does it look super funny? Is the curse of never knitting the garment once still with me. Oh wait I did have to re-knit the top part of this way back when.

Along with some finished projects I also have some new stuff going on, some old stuff found at the bottom of the pile and such.

I started Sizzle while coming home from NY, but didn't get far. Put it aside until other things had finished. Now I am cruising along. The colors are not quite as bright as in the picture. I love the Bamboo yarn, Southwest Trading Company Bamboo to be specific.

I have also pulled an old Clapotis out, since the previous one is forever the "damn" Clapotis this one is more appealing, I like the colors and may even use it one day.

The last knitting item to get attention is International Scarf Exchange knitting. I have chosen Malabrigo yarn in an Apple Cinnamon color, I think that is right. Light pink and light brown, I hope my pal loves it!! I borrowed the free pattern from the FiberBrunette, super easy and love how it looks. I see one for me coming soon!

I am also contemplating starting The Everyday Tweed with some plain and fancy as well. The Purple/Green stuff I bought in Estes, I must use some Estes yarn soon, how horrible would it be to get to Estes time next year and now have used my yarn!!

I have so many projects that are so close to being done, and they are not ones that I have given up on, just ones that have been pushed aside. This bugs me to no end, I am practical, I love to knit but I also love to use my knittables. Wear them, or at least fold them up and put them in the closet like I would wear them one day. I hate the piles project pieces. So I declared Sunday my finishing day, and the first Sunday finishing went rather well.

I completed clue 6 of Mystery Stole on one end of my stole, leaving clue 6 to do on the other end. If I don't run out of yarn. It will be close, this sucker is long..... See the new finished floors too, they look wonderful!

I have also finished up the knitting on the Cutaway, all that is left is seaming. This shouldn't be to bad. I just hope the bind off on this one doesn't make the round parts in front bunch too much.

Also finished is the Purple Gables for Mom, she just needs to try it on ok the sleeve length and then I will sew in the sleeve ends. See this makes me feel better I have made progress on some items that have been neglected. Until next Sunday.

Tennis was great, vacation was mostly great, traveling with my mom and sister, ehhh. We are going to need a 5 year break before I am ready to do this again and forget all the annoying things about family.

So this is most likely just going to be a quick sneak peek into the vacation with some more details later, but well if I never get to the details the overall info is here. Thursday night we saw one of the most amazing match I have ever seen, Agassi vs Bagdahtis, the last winning match of Agassi's career. Friday even James Blake made a tribute to Agassi by wearing this throw back Agassi outfit (I think I had a poster of Agassi in this outfit in my room, in err Middle School I hope.) We saw many other big names and great matches including Martina Navrativola which I had never seen play before. I could have stayed and just watched tennis I love it. If only I could pay attention to knitting while watching. OK this might be a tennis only post with others to come (where else can I post all the pictures)...

I saw the up and coming new Russianish Nicole Vaidisova as well as the old favorites. Lindsay Davenport she hasn't retired yet but I think it may be coming soon. There was also Roddick, Mauresmo, Serina, Hewitt, Janvokic.

So much tennis I loved it. I couldn't come home with out an addition to my collection as well, who knew I collect rubber ducks. Isn't he cute!!! OK now onto, maybe some knitting and other purchases made.

There was some non-tennis happenings as well, and a lot of touristy things too. I didn't partake in the super touristy day of Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the double decker bus ride in the rain, I needed the break from the family. So I met up with the no longer in Denver, super missed Cyn it was great to see her!!! I met up with her, and some of her friends for a great breakfast, she did all proper over on her blog with links and all, go check it out.

Then on to shopping, now I am sure it is no surprise to the local group that well we didn't take any pictures. It is the great plan that we may be the least photographed knitters... We started out at School Products which was a unique yarn store they had a ton of cashmere blends and what not. I bought one little skein of 100% Cashmere, it is so so soft. Cynthia didn't show a picture of what she bought I suspect maybe because there was some Koigu with some pinkish (no, wait it had to be purple) in it. Really pretty no less.

It was rainy and not the best of days, but we trudged through it, I was just happy to not have conversations like:

Mom: "How far is the Empire State building from our hotel?"

Me: "I don't know."

Mom: "How long will it take us to get there?"

Me: (trying to be nice) "Mom if I don't know how far it is how will I know how long it will take?"

As so on and so on. I call them filler questions, like when I do something obvious and someone asks about it. I buy a shirt at the US Open, my mom is like "oh do you like that shirt?" No mother I bought it because it is fricking ugly!!! She likes to fill the space has to talk regardless, quiet is not good for Mom, so she asks stupid annoying questions that drive me crazy and bring out the worst in me. Ok so onto the shopping.

I had wanted to get a bag, not any bag a bag you can only get in NY not one I would be able to find at home, or see someone else with at home. We hit a two stores, I found the bag in the second store. Verve it was a small shop with a ton of bag's all so beautiful and not all so affordable. I came home with this little (well actually the biggest purse I own). I really love it and feel less and less guilty about the price the more I look at it. I don't even have enough crap to fill it up, yet.

There was also some Vacation knitting, I bound off the body of the Green Gable for my mother on Tuesday night, I have the sleeves to go and it will be done!! I didn't think I had knit much while I was out there but apparently I had. I am pleased with how this is looking, I hope it sill fits Mom ok when I give it to her. Can I knit every pattern top down in the round, I love it!!

And since I was on vacation and calories don't count, which also means if you start something new just for the fun of it, even if you have 10 things to finish at home, there is no guilt there either (Not really true but I can try and fool myself). I cast on for Knit and Tonic's Sizzle I have not made it far yet, apparently the guilt set in about when I walked in the door and say the lime blue cardi, cutaway and my very own Green gable that needs to have some work done on them...

I was gone for 5ish days girls and I came home to so many blogs to catch up on, the most amazing one was Nachaele she updated 12 times while I was gone and was also packing, cleaning and moving. I am not sure I can squeek out that many posts in a month!

Ahhh we have pictures, thank goodness!!! I have made progress on my current two main projects, Purple Gables for Mom and the Lime Blue Cardi.

Lime Blue, I just finished up the body and have barely started on the sleeves, this yarn is still so so soft, and I love the color.

Purple Gables is going quickly, I had taken off the sleeves so Mom could try it on and it was a little tight I ripped back and am ready to take the sleeves off again now.

I was going to try and take only two projecrts to the US Open this week, but I think I have to take at least 3. Purple Gables is going so fast, and I would like to have it close to done since Mom will be there to continually try it on. I am also going to take Sizzle to start on,using a red/orange Bamboo. And the Hourglass, using the Purple/Green Plain and Fancy. If nothing else I have airplane knitting time.

I am so excited to get away, I need the escape right now and this will be the first trip traveling with my Mom and Sister, I hope it goes well so we can keep traveling together. I also get to see the super missed Cynthia!!

This blog has been neglected, the camera has been MIA so the blog has been as well. So you get a pictureless blog. And as all the local knitters know, I look at pictures more than I read the content of blogs. So I must keep this short..

I have been in a knitting funk of sorts, progress is getting made but nothing completed yet.

- Lime Blue Cardi is close to being bound off, then just sleeves to go!!

- Cut Away, poor cutaway it should be done, it only has finishing to do. But little to no love in a while.

- Mystery Stole 2, I was gung ho while new clues were coming out, I must be done before I can start the next clue, well now that all the clues are out I am fizzling a bit. I have almost finished clue 6 on one side, I am wrapping up the edging and then I can do the other side. It won't take long.

- Madli just might be dusty.

- I have started a 2nd Green Gable for my mother's bday. Not real far on that yet.

- My fall/winter knit list is growing and growing, Starsky, hourglass, Tubey, another coat like sweater out of Big Girl knits, plus another cardigan out of Big Girl Knits. Oh Sizzle, a Noroeske cardi too, out of Malabrigio though. And much more.

I can't be in a funk I have a ton of knitting to get done before spring!!

I think I may be a big C knitter. We all know what a big K knitter is about, but the big C whether I just made it up or not may fit the bill here. I will get to what the C stands for soon.

I start to then realize a great friend to all of us Denver Knitters is moving soon, which is a sad event with a few nice perks. She will be near Knitter fantasy lands like Webs and Classic Elite which has a discount store there as well, how could all of us pass up a chance to go visit. I mean really!!! This doesn't even mention all the yarn stores in the greater Boston area. Cynthia her very own self, just sent out this email listing her new shopping list:

1) (more for me than you) IKEA is 35 minutes away from my apt.

2) WEBS is 1.5 hours away

3) the Classic Elite Warehouse is 45 minutes away.

4) Rhinebeck: THREE hours!!!

5) Maryland Sheep and Wool: 6 hrs.

So I start thinking, hey I want to visit Cynthia in the near future, I should make the best of it. Now I wish I could check off all of her items on the list above but I will take what I can get. The other night for giggles I start looking at plane ticket prices. Then I look here at the Vendor list for the New York Sheep and Wool festival, seriously look at all of those vendors, it is madness. I look back at the plane ticket prices to Boston, they are pretty cheap. How do I pass this up. I type a few quick IM's to Cynthia and before you know it I bought a ticket. I am going to Rhinebeck this year, I am also going to see Cynthia!!!

I am beyond excited, I am already being a little nerdy and looking up vendor websites and such. I may need a second job between now and then to afford any yarn though!!

So as you can imagine a big C knitter stands for CRAZY!!!

My feed didn't seem to update the last time I posted. We shall see if wakes up this time or not.

The knitting guilt continues, poor poor Cutaway it has seen no love and it is so close to being done. I started another new small project this week, one with a deadline of August 5th. It is the one Stacey is making for her niece. I sure hope mine turns out as cute. Here is the beginning of the back. It knits up fast, hopefully it knits fast enough to be done in time.

I have also finished up the first half of clue 3 for the Mystery Stole. I made a couple mistakes but I don't feel the need to rip it out or point them out for that matter. And this of course means Madli too has seen no time on the sticks. She will grow again one day. Especially if I take Cynthia up on her offer for us to race to the finish. This could get dicey, do you think she would notice if I dropped a stitch for her?

I also got to take my sleeves off the Lime Blue Cardi this week, I am loving this knit, I hope the Malabrigio doesn't pill as much as I am told it does, it can't it is too soft and pretty too. It is even starting to look like a Cardigan.

I have felt like most of my time has been either knitting or working, it makes for a boring to blog about life.

Mystery Stole 2 is so addictive. I can't stop knitting this thing!!! Hopefully tonight I will have both parts of Clue 2 finished so that I can go back to normally programmed knitting. I thought I would only do half then work on other projects but I can't. I will say it is going really fast, compared to Madli which now is the same thing over and over it is quite refreshing to have 50 rows of completely different knitting. Below is a crappy picture of the progress so far. I have some gaping holes on the right side of the top of my clovers I need to figure out some trick to get those all prettied up.

This picture is worse than I thought, sorry!

Dad's surgery went great, the doctor said it went perfectly, which we rarely ever hear when it comes to his health. He was in good spirits yesterday so that is encouraging. It may be a long 6 months of rehab though.

Only one new little bit of info the rest is all progress yada. I signed up for the Mystery Stole 2, I have my yarn picked out and I cast on, I may redo this though my provisional looks a bit sloppy. The yarn is actually darker green than the picture shows, darn camera it is smarter than me again.

I am up to 15 and a half repeats of Madli, that is exactly half way done for the body. I would really like to see this thing move along so I can get onto another lace project. I have bought some gray pearl color lace from handpainted to make my Grandmother a shawl for Christmas. Just need a pattern and the Madli done!

I am also getting through the Cutaway nicely, all that is left are the sleeves, and I am working on both now.

Over the long weekend I had plenty of time to work on both and was pretty happy with the progress. I am itching to finish both. I also want to start a new sweater out of my Estes purchases. I am currently thinking Hourglass with the Plain and Fancy we shall

see. The long weekend was wonderful I really needed the break and enjoyed every minute. So much that I am taking another 3 day weekend this weekend, and a 4 day weekend the week after. And in other good work news, my least favorite co-worker quit today!!

Hopefully a lot of knitting will go on this weekend, Dad will be having surgery (nothing life threatening, shoulder replacement, dude is my Dad old enough for this, does this mean I am old now too?) tomorrow which sucks but does mean I will be doing a lot of sitting around knitting. Grandma will be in town this weekend as well which is always great. I wish she lived closer. Have a great weekend!!

Like all the other local girls ssss(plus a few more) I was off to the Estes Park Wool Festival on Saturday. Michelle was so kind to host us all Friday night so we could get an early start from the same location Saturday morning. The good news is that I had money for lunch, and didn't use the plastic at all, I took cash hoping if I had to transfer to plastic I would realize I was in trouble. It worked. I will admit I had hoped to bring some cash home though. Below is the new stash enhancement:

Brooks Farm Yarn Limited Edition Superwash top left, 2 balls of Trekking top middle, Plain and Fancy Sheep and wool top right and bottom right. Some 100% Alpaca in Colorado Red bottom left and the big purchase was Brooks Farm Yarn 100% Kid Mohair on the bottom middle. Isn't it beautiful!

I also have some progress photos to share.

First up the Cutaway pattern, the back is almost finished.

Not sure if I mentioned before but this is Jo sharp Soho summer cotton dk yarn, in a slate color. It is really soft I am liking this knit and it is fast. I have a few more inches before the back is done.

I have also been working on the Madli's Shawl it is quite a bit slower knit but enjoyable.

Call me the copycat. Stacey decided to make the Noro Shrug, so I made it along with some others(Cynthia, Michelle..). Wanda went and made a Green Gable, so I went and made one too. Kim bought this awesome Vera Bradley Bag, in Java Blue, so I got one too (see behind the picture of the shawl). Cynthia started the Madli Shawl, I just bought a ton of lace weight and didn't really have plans, I have been looking for a not so girly frilly shawl, so guess what? With Cynthia's help I started the Madli Shawl last night, even knit on it over lunch today. I am loving this, it is addictive, Cyn was right about that.

Just so everyone doesn't think I am all copy cat, I did make the Noro Cowl (still needs to be seamed) and I know a few have yarn to make it now too.

I have also started on the Cutaway pattern, which no one else I knit with is working on currently. It is going really fast I have about 3 inches before I can start the arm hole shaping. Good think I have the shawl now for some excitement.

I have tried all week to post this entry, and by now all the original pictures are out of date, but good news I have new pictures, complete pictures, well complete as in pictures of it blocking as we speak.

Green Gable Pretty Blue Gable is now complete, I knit this with Rowan all Seasons Cotton, in a shade of blue color I don't know right now. This was a super quick knit and I even added sleeves. I was amazed that I switched out the yarn, didn't really swatch, and it still fits. Of course that is after one or two re-do's which is normal for me I always knit things at least 3 times over before they are complete. I am working on this, believe me. I have also started a lace project, a stole, there isn't much to see yet. I really really want to knit this stole. Isn't it pretty? Lace and Intrelac all in one, am I crazy? Here is what I have started on my beginning lace stole.

He was so good when we got him, no chewing nothing bad, he was mellow and just happy to be where we were. He is digging, and he even escaped twice yesterday to go sit on the front porch, well until the neighbors dog went by then he took off to their house. We are all learning slowly, but I will admit it has been a lot better than I anticipated and he doesn't seem to have any interest in yarn, which is the biggies relief. He is still quite cute though. Not all that photogenic yet, we'll work on it.

You know the drill, you get pictures or all sorts of rambling. Today you are lucky it will be crappy camera phone pictures.

I have blocked the cowl, in an effort to postpone seaming since it is too hot to wear it anyway, I blocked so that it did not get lonely on me.

For Mother's day I made all the mom's I am quasi related too slippers, last count was 7 pairs. The last pair is the only one that would smile pretty for the picture, and will be mailed off tomorrow to Grandma.

The Kyoto has been ripped, I blocked it too so that the cowl would not be lonely during blocking. After blocking the stitches looked much better but the size was still off, I was pretty sure of this but hated to rip unless absolutely necessary. Hence no picture of Kyoto.

Since Kyoto was off the needles, and the slippers consumed a good portion of knitting time I decided a new project was necessary for my knitting peace of mind. I cast on for Green Gable last weekend and am plugging away. I'm loving the yarn and how this looks, the color is a bit off here though. A few other random projects seem to be hiding in my knitting bag, but nothing that is getting much attention.

The last post was all words, this time we will go for the visual side of blogging:

I finished my modified OSW, with sleeves, I stole the mods from here. I believe it was the August 18th, 2005 post. Basically I just joined the sleeves in the round, where the original pattern has you do the rib on the sleeves, then decreased about 2 stitches every inch until it was long enough for me. I used to be photogenic or maybe I just preferred the way I looked before and would allow pictures of myself. (yes my kitchen really is that color of green, not sure it will be staying for the long haul).

I have also been working on felted slippers out the wazoo, one pair yesterday turned out quite odd, so I am unsure if I screwed up the pattern of if Rio de la Platta just doesn't do much for the felting world. I need to finish 3 more pairs by Sunday!!

See our new Garden Friends, Fred and Dizzy the Lizard.

I have also been working on Kyoto, I am unsure if my gauge is off, or if I need to make a smaller size, or if I just want my sweater to be big and comfy. Cynthia helped check gauge yesterday, and came up with 4, 4.5, and 5 stitches per inch. Not real consistent, I think I might keep going and see how big it turns out, or if I need it to be smaller. Who wants to rip, then again how often do I hear that something is too big on me.

I have some new yarn pics as well. I should really take pictures more than once a month.... The bulk of this yarn is for Ted's sweater when it gets colder, I will have to post a picture of the pattern I am going to use. I also bought some Noro Silk Garden, and some more Kureyon. Not real sure what i am going to make with either yet, some ideas but we shall see.

I think because of the two Noro purchases I must restrain myself from buying yarn untile Estes, I am out of control. Unless of course I need to buy yarn to finish a started project. I can do this, it is only a little over a month.

Will the week ever end so I can go frolic in the mountains and knit to my hearts content? This last couple weeks at work has been grueling. I am used to being fairly busy, but this putting out fires once a day and non-stop crap is enough. Thankfully it has not included too many extra hours, but I am just drained when I leave this place. the worst part is that it has not given me adequate time to update my blog. Now that is just rude.

I un-boundoff the Noro Shrug and added a few inches to the collar, so much that I used up all the yarn and didn't think to realize I needed some of that said yarn to seam up. Don't look too close I seamed up partly with other random yarn. I really like it, it fits well too. It might be a little baggy on the sides but I can deal with that.

I didn't wait long to cast on for the next project, another Noro one. This one I am almost done with the back, it is a super fast knit. Not sure if the knit two buy one is getting me to knit faster or what, but when I finish this sweater I can buy another lot of yarn for a new sweater. Hmmm maybe I need a special treat if I knit 3 then buy one. I must ponder this.

The only other exciting news is that I finally have a real dryer. I was using this old piece of crap that was in the house before we moved in, it seriously took about 3 hours to dry a quarter of the laundry out of the washer. The floor vent on the kitchen floor and a drying wrack was faster. My father came by to see the new digs and I sweet talked him into installing the right electrical outlet so I could move the new fancy dryer from the garage into the house. I love it, I have been playing with the settings and what not, who knew dryers could be so exciting.

I have finished the Knitting Olympics, obviously I did not pick something challenging enough for myself or my drug test will come back positive for steroids. I pick the former. I really like the socks, they are soft and very warm. I originally had a little trouble with gapping holes in my heal turns. But in the end they turned out good with a little cinching here and there.

I have since started the Shrug Stacey made famous, out of Noro Kureyon color 92. It is knitting up fast, but I had to go down to 6's to get gauge when the pattern calls for 9's. I originally bought Kureyon colorway 88 which was just too bright for me, I knew I wouldn't wear it when all was said and done, after much obsessing about it. So if you are interested in some Kureyon color 88 hop on over to my eBay auction. Sunday, Stacey met me at String to pick out some new yarn (for me) and ask some questions about the Shrug, since they are having a class for it. And that is when I got my new beautiful color. Here is a picture of what I have done so far. I am excited to see this thing, grow, I will need to go back and get 5 or so more balls since they only had 5.

I have also been slowly working to finish the "damn" clapotis, as I call it now. The third do over and hopefully it will be done, it was my lunchtime project today.