Ugh. Yes, ugh.  I did narrow down my list, but it has not helped.  Me. At all. I am frustrated.  I have a sock that I am trying to do a short row heel on that I have ripped out at least 10 times. No exaggeration. It’s always something. My citron shawl…don’t even get me started! I follow the directions, but I don’t have the right number of stitches, and when I do it mathematically, I think I am closer to right than the pattern is. Problem is 8000 people on Ravelry have already knit it successfully and there are no corrections listed, so it is just me. LIttle ol’ me and my inability to count. My cable mittens are not SO bad–I’ve ripped out half an inch twice–but that was for making the very same mistake twice.  Now you’re getting my ugh, right? Sometimes I think…I should be better at this by now!

In better news, I blocked the purple mittens, and they are okay. Just okay. At least they feel the same size now.  The thumbs are a bit too long and too pointy so I may take out a few rows and fix them, but they’re okay. I love the color at least.

Because I could not face any of my projects, I brought a new one to start. Rustling Leaves Beret from the Coastal Knits book.  At lunch I cast on and finished one row, and despite my bad, bad, bad, icky tenancies right now, I ended on a purl, just as you should when knitting ribbing.

Tonight I am going to stay at work and finish something up I promised to the non-profit I’m on the board of and then I am going to a Stitch and Bitch for a couple hours. If I actually do bitch do you think they’ll still like me?

By the way, Knit Unique in Logan, Utah, has an awesome collection of yarn. I am almost jealous Chantel is moving there. Almost.

So I’ve started feeling a bit…spread thin, like ‘butter scraped over too much bread’ (J.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings), at least in my knitting. I have so many projects on needles, and so many all purchased and ready to go on needles, and so many requests and blah, blah, yadda, yadda….I have a hard time keeping track.  So this weekend I made a list of everything I am actually working on now and found I had six projects going. Too many! I do like to have more than one, something easy and repetitious,  and something a bit more challenging so that I can knit to my mood.  But this is ridiculous.

So I finished my purple mittens, and they came out reasonably sized the same- you might remember these as the ones that turned out two different sizes the first time. They are blocking now.  I made a decision on the shawl I’d dropped a stitch on.  After going for help and frogging it down to the dropped stitches, the pattern was off. So I could just start on the pattern and there would be a line where it didn’t match up.  Frankly though, I started thinking that I wouldn’t actually wear this shawl, and so maybe it had given me the chance to learn lace, but the yarn would be better in a ball waiting for a project I would like. Yes, I ripped it out. I finished one cabled glove to the point where it needs to be for the class on the 30th, and started the second one, which will be finished this week I am sure. I knit the thick purple wrap until all the yarn I have is gone and I need to buy more and set it aside. I don’t want to buy more yarn right now since I have so much waiting to be knit. So that leaves me with the purple socks, the citron shawl, and half a cabled glove on needles. Manageable.

I also made a list of all the things I have yarn for but haven’t started. I will not get into that today though. I can’t blog all day!

Here is my glove now….

Cabled glove to the thumb...

I feel like I’ve gotten cables without needles down. Except when I  started the second glove, I made the same cable on the left the wrong way twice and had to rip out.  What is up with that?

Knitting at the bus stop.

So I rode the bus today.  And knit on it. And at the bus stop during the 30 minute wait for the connecting bus. Get this; as I am getting off the first bus, the second bus is stopped at the light before the stop where I need to catch it, across the street from where I am. Do you see this in your mind? Me standing across the street, knowing that bus is going to pass me by. Of course the bus got a green light before me , and drove off into the sunrise, leaving me with a 30 minute wait. Aaargh.

The reason for the bus hell was that Channi is driving my car to my office at noon, and we are going on an adventure to USU to meet with her counselor, pick housing, etc. And go eat at The Bluebird Cafe,and possibly visit the yarn store there….never know what crazy thing we’ll get up to!

Aaaaaah……

Yes, I get it. Last night I took a class on making cables without a cable needle at Blazing Needles. One of my first knitting projects was a scarf with cables, which I found tedious and confusing. Couldn’t seem to ‘get’ which way the cable would end up. Thanks to Adriana, I now think cables are no biggie, and which way they lean seems intuitive. Here’s what I have so far;

Chevalier Mittens

See those left and right leaning cables? Huh? Right?!  I know, it’s ridiculous!

Also, check out the yarn, which I love. Madelinetosh Vintage Calligraphy. Yes, I know solids show cables better, but this is such a subtle little bit of nothing color…I just love it. And I love working with it. Not too stretchy, but still soft and yummy. Fabulous.

So last night at class one of the guys was telling one of the women about this class he takes and she asks where it is. He says down on 133rd south or so…and she says, “Oh my God, that is practically Utah County! I don’t go down there!” I did not then mention I was from Utah County. It was hilarious though.

Okay, 15 days apart;

What the cuss!? How did that happen so fast?  Sigh.

So tonight Channi and I are going to Knit Night at Blazing Needles together,and I am just so excited! My sis’ B-day is 11-11-11, and K and I are doing the food for her party, which we start tonight. Looking forward to that. And Sat the manicure with Kiki.  How fun is this?

Hi all!  So I got a lot done this weekend, but actually had a really frustrating time! First, the good news;

Jude & Boneyard Scarf

I finished Jude’s scarf, and it turned out really well. At least he and I think so.  And fortunately/unfortunately, I have about half the yarn I bought to make it left.  He has requested gloves to match, so that is what he will get. I loved working with the Shepard’s Wool yarn, so that will not be too bad. And hopefully I can do them quickly.

In other good news:

First Christmas Ornament

I made this cute little glove ornament on Saturday. It was quick and easy and cute, so that was fun. If we do an exchange this year I will likely be making more…

Okay, on to the bad news..and I really don’t even know how to say this, because both situations are just incredibly frustrating for me!

I found a dropped stitch about 2″ down on my sock on Friday night. How, I don’t know. The stitch count was correct, so how….aargh!!

So I thought, I’ll just work on the good one for awhile…I could not face tearing out and starting that pattern over…..and then I found a dropped stitch on the one I was doing!! Double Aargh. I ripped it down to the toe and just started knitting it without the pattern. I have had it. But in the back of my head I am just irritated with myself and can’t really get into the sock because I feel like a failure! Yea, ugh.

More bad followed. So I decide to make some mittens. I do one on Saturday…turns out fine, but I need to make the thumb longer. On

What a Mess!

Sunday I fix the thumb and make the second one. Same number of stitches, same yarn, same knitter….but they are two different sizes completely. The one I made on Sunday is tight on my hand and the one from Saturday is loose. I ripped out to the thumb and did it again…still much smaller.  Sigh.  So a mitten may take only a couple of hours, but this one has already taken a couple of hours twice and it’s going to happen again to fix it. And I really wanted to wear them today!! Okay, see the frustration!

And to top it off, someone, who will not be named, left the first pair of gloves I ever knit somewhere and they are gone, gone, gone. I just hope whoever has them now appreciates wool and actually needed them.

Okay, I’ll get in a better mood, right? Knitting should make me happy!  And I did get to see Walker play hockey this weekend, Chantel and I watched the new Supernatural which was extremely satisfying because Dean told Sam to stop acting like a B#@*#, Kiki and I made plans to go for manicures next Saturday, and I got to actually spend some time with Jude. It’s not all about knitting, right? Right?!

Ugh.  I realized after several rows at our knitting group last night that I had not been knitting the even rows without the pattern and the socks were looking scary. Had to frog it down to the beginning of the pattern. I don’t know about you, but picking up and getting that tiny sock yarn all back together is not any fun!! When I got home at 10ish, I had put about 3/4 of them back on the needles all pretty.  That left 1/4 a mess, which resulted in my having dreams of messed up knitting until 2:30am when I finally woke up for real. No more sleep after that. So I got up and fixed the socks and while I did it watched ‘For Your Consideration’ and ‘The Big Lebowski’.  Sigh. Why do we need sleep anyway? I’d much rather knit.

The group Chantel and I went to last night was fun. It is in the Jitterbug Cafe in Salt Lake, a cute local coffee joint. There were 2 women who had only been there once before, and another newbie showed up sometime after us, so it was 5 new people and three old timers. I guess about 5 of the regulars were absent for various reasons. Everyone was fun and friendly.  One of the women works at Blazing

Margaret Atwood Knits!!

Needles, so I’ve seen her before and that was sort of fun. Where do you go for a night out after working in a knitting store? To knit with friends of course.

Guess what? Margaret Atwood, one of Chantel and my favorite authors is a knitter. I am not even kidding. They had this up on the knitty blog (knittyblog.com) today because Ms. Atwood contributed a piece to a show of knitting in London. It’s so fabulous Chantel and I are just jumping up and down with excitement.

So besides the socks, which are being punished in my purse, here is where I am at on the two scarves I am working on:

Jude's Boneyard Scarf

Susan's Citron Scarf

The rain is making all the leaves drop, and they are covering the ground in a weird sort of muddy covering, all sloshy. Love it!  Okay, the commute was pretty bad.  Took a long time. For some reason Utah drivers act like rain is snow or something. Oh well, I still like it. I feel like I’m home in Oregon, and it’s all cozy. I just need to be curled up under the blankets with the window open so I can hear and see it, and a good book or some knitting. Oh well, work is a close second. And my view is fun.

Right now it’s sort of a cross between rain and snow, so that’s interesting. My view of The Capital and the mountains is completely obscured with clouds. Why does that make me smile?  You knew I was a bit off already, so what the heck.

Tonight Channi is riding the bus up to meet me and we are going to a Stitch N Bitch at a cafe here in Salt Lake.  I hope it’s fun. That will basically be 2 for me this week since I’ll go to Blazing Needles on Thursday.  I need the motivation.

While K and I watched a bad scary movie and handed out candy last night, I worked on the socks. Got all the way to the pattern. Then noticed a weird bump on one side and realized there was definitely something wrong. No idea how I did it, but a string is sticking out on the side. Ugh. Every time I start to think I can do socks happily, they teach me.  I think part of the problem is my stitches are so tight. I really need to learn to relax with my Magic Loop. Really.

One of us will report tomorrow on the group. With only nice things to say of course. They are knitters.

When will I get used to taking pics of my work?  I did sooooooo much this weekend.

Purple Socks, Undecided Pattern

Do I have anything to prove it with? Noooooooo. Of course not.  All I have is what is in my bag, which is barely the tip of the purple socks I picked up again last night.  I haven’t actually been avoiding them…per se, as I have been working on other projects, but I just can’t seem to decide which pattern (all the ones I”m considering are from Wendy Johnson) to start once I am past the toes. I like the Guernsey patterns from the book I have and the little box of patterns, but I did a Guernsey pattern for my first stocks, which were for Kimball. At this point I feel like I need to do something new every time.  And I stand behind that. Cables seem like a pain for that long, but they are the most attractive looking to me…I’m just at a loss.

So, here I am, reviewing patterns, trying to decide…and honestly, not even sure I like doing socks.  I’ve been trying not to judge by the first pair, which I ripped out too many times to want to count. Hopefully these will go better. I know people talk about finishing a pair a month or finishing one during a week’s commute, and I hope I get to that. Because K loves his socks to death, and wants many, many more pairs. Such a dilemma.

I did do a lot of knitting this weekend. Watched Jane Eyre with my mom, again, and knit on Jude’s scarf. I actually had to start the second ball of yarn. Love the yarn, by the way. Shepard’s Wool brand in Granite.  Then watched some Supernatural with Chantel and actually cast on Citron http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/citron with some Noro Sekku yarn. It is going to be colorful. She asked for that, so I hope she likes the colors. I’m working on the second section, so have a good 6 or more inches on. I feel like I accomplished a lot. For once. Although any time on the weekend not spent knitting is just irritating. Kind of.

Boneyard Scarf

So I woke up last night for no apparent reason at 2amish.  What else is there to do but start a new project?  ( I really hope I am not subconsciously waking myself up to have uninterrupted knitting time) So I started this: It is the Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West, although I think it’s more of a scarf and although it is triangular am making it for Jude. Love this yarn and am excited to see how it turns out. The pattern provides directions and then sort of says, stop when it’s big enough.  I hope Jude can make up his mind (doubtful) because I am going to have a hard time judging.

Waking up to tell me a story

Best smile possible when not actually awake

Speaking of Jude, he woke up when I was getting ready to leave to tell me a dream he had about our family taking a vacation to Russian, getting in trouble with the mob or the government or someone and being split up from Kimball. He was very upset because we were hiding in a movie theater and Chantel and I just kept watching movies and we would not listen to him and that Kimball might be in danger and we really needed to get on the ball and find him.  Well, that is just ridiculous! As if! Chantel and I would be knitting, not watching movies!!

Sam and Dean talk about their feelings while sitting on the Impala

Before all that nonsense, Chantel and I settled down to watch this:

And do some knitting. As mentioned, I am working on a hat for her for some outrageous reason.  It’s going quickly though so it should be ready for her Halloween costume, which is what she wants it for. Hopefully she’ll wear it at other times as well.

You might notice my yarn activities last night involved a lot of grey.  It’s a wintery thing, and not my mood, for sure. My progress:

Channi's Halloween Hat

Saturday was such a busy day and at the end of it I was complaining to Chantel and Kimball (we never see Jude anymore) that I’d barely knitted at all! Maybe, I got in 30 minutes, but I think it was less. The baby hat I did to go with the sweater was too big, so I started another–all I had to show for the day was 4 rows on DPNs. I know, right!?

Chantel and Kimball at the Reception

But Chantel’s friend Kayla got married, and it’s the first of her friends, so it was a big day. Chantel did all the wedding photography, engagement pics and bridal photos included, and I was impressed. What they had set out at the wedding was beautiful. K went too, even got dressed up, and it was a nice event, fall colors and crisp air included.  So that took up a lot. Then poor Channi seemed a bit down that evening, so she and K and I went to B&N and read and had yummy drinks and all. I consented to springing for a couple of books for her. That’s going to cheer Chantel up no matter what!! It was fun to have some time with her.

Sunday, however, I knit. Practically the whole day. Woke up early and worked on the purple shawl, which despite what the directions take is probably going to take 5 balls of yarn and not two. Hopefully, the dye lot issue won’t be a problem, because I only bought the two.  Then Channi and I put in some Supernatural, skipping to our favorite episodes in 4 and 5 and watching the gag reels, and I probably spent 5 hours with needles in hand. How fun is that? K was out watching football and didn’t even bug us. He even brought us drinks once since our hands were full!  At some point in there, I started the hat to match K’s gloves. He wants to turn the brim up, so it has to be extra long.  Here’s what it looks like now:

K's Matching Hat So Far

Chantel wants one too for her Halloween costume, but in grey. Why I have to knit her stuff, I am not sure. She’s busy with monsters or some such, and evidently, my knitting time is less precious. Or maybe because I’ve done this hat 50 times and can whip it out in my sleep. Or sleepy state anyway. Or maybe because it’s knit 3 purl 2 and she keeps doing 2×2 or some wacky version.  Still, it’s kntting and so what the heck,right? I am not complaining, really.

Yes, I am getting down.  Uh huh.

Yesterday I had 4 of Amy’s kids for the day. Very fun. Some sewing, knitting, duck tape crafting, catch, swinging, skating, walking, cooking, snacking, wii playing and movie watching.

Yes, we were busy. Very.  I hate to post bad, and not good, but the last seam Kiki did on the fabric pumpkin we were working on….Here she’d done all these seams that looked so perfectly 1/4″ from the edge and then she hands me this…my thumb is holding the thread where it went off the fabric. We laughed so hard.  Anyway, it was nice to have a day off with kids. I highly recommend it. Especially those you can send home when you are done with them.

Here are pics of K’s finished gloves…finally. Yes, I did it. He now has one pair of mittens and two pairs of gloves from me, so he’d better not complain of the cold until next year.  I am working on the matching hat of course, so look for that soon.

Since I had to buy another skein of the purple baby sweater yarn I am also working on a hat to match. Simple garter around the brim and then stockinette. Should finish that quick enough.  I see a weekend of knitting coming up, starting tonight, so I’m sort of excited.

I’m pretty sure almost anyone has something they have the same feeling about on Friday night…golfing, movies, bar hopping, shopping, reading, model train collecting, or maybe something I can’t mention here.  So think of that and freedom to do it and that is about how I’m feeling right about now…