Time to decide

One week ago I decided to attack my Mirepoix vest with new vigor. The only requirement I had was to knit "a bit" every day. I didn't define "a bit" any further. It didn't need to be for any length of time or any amount of rows as long as I knitted on it every day.

I put markers to mark my daily progress and they really helped to keep me moving.

In one week's time, I've done 7 inches and am now ready for the bodice (i.e. the hard part).



Pulling out the rest of my yarns, I found this hot mess.



I still haven't decided on the color combinations.

To recap, I needed 2 shades of 3 colors for a total of 6, including the grey. I originally have 6 colors, but 3 shades of teal, 2 of yellow, and grey all by itself.

This is my first swatch.



Hmm...

Then, I bought 2 shades of pink and tried this out.



Double hmmm...

Then I put it all away and forged ahead on the ribbing.

Figured I'd deal with it later.

Now, it's later and time to decide.

Or knit another swatch.

Or two.

Yippee-i-y-yea! and Hip hip hoorah!

Today was a day off work. Yippee-i-y-yea! and Hip hip hoorah! (Spirits were slightly dampened when I found out that I somehow missed that I have to work tomorrow--I'm sure the schedule didn't say so, but then all of a sudden it did. Still, I had one day off and that was good.)

The day was started with me being all motivated. Balanced the checkbook, did paperwork and computer stuff. Knitted. Mowed the lawn. (So, I'm running late with that. The ground up leaves can just be called mulch.) The mower died so I switched to raking leaves. Found a spider on my back (Not an ordinary one but a rather spectacular one.) Ran screaming into the house and that was the end of that.

The kids had a 2 hour early release so we were going to do errands and such, but they were tired so instead we stayed home and they took a nap. (And maybe me too.)

That's the end of my productive day.

Except....

I finally got the nerve to put my vest on some scrap yarn and try it on.

And it fits.




Yippee-i-y-yea! and Hip hip hoorah!

I have about 2 more inches to go and then on to the bodice. And the colorwork. I'm starting to shake in my boots but am determined to keep going so I can wear it this year. And be done with it.

Joke

Q: How are the Redskins like a 'possom?




A: They play dead when at home and get killed on the road.



(Explanation for those of you who live in another country: it's the local professional football team that's doing very badly this year.)


Another 7 rows were knitted onto the Mirepoix bodice today, but I'll spare you the picture.

The daily knitting

November is NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month where one blogs every day for the whole month.

I, however, will not be doing that. (Surprised?) There's not a chance that I can keep up with that, so instead I'll just try to blog occasionally. That's all the commitment I'm going to give. November needs no more pressures, especially for one who works at a retail store. Shudder... Plus, Christmas is just around the corner and Christmas gifts may or may not need to be knitted.

However, I am committed to working on my vest for a bit each day. (Fuzzily defined to avoid pressure. See above reasoning.)

Today I've knitted between the orange marker and the needles. (natch). Five or six rows. Not much but it will add up.




But that's not all the knitting that I've done today. I've also finished this scarf. (I have no idea where it came from and what it was doing on my needles... All of a sudden, it was just there.)



16 stitches, size 15 needles, one skein of Cherry Tree Hill Bulky Loop Mohair. Color Champagne.

It's longer than 8 feet plus the fringe--just 'cause I wanted to use the whole skein. VERY warm and cozy.

The sock has also made progress (but has not lost a stitch!)



It's nearing the toe and going well.

(blah, blah, blah. boring. boring. Here's the interesting conclusion to tie this whole post together......)(Hahahahahaha--a conclusion sentence? You didn't think I could do that, did you? It's not happening today. Or on most other days, either.)

Another inch

We have recently upgraded to Windows 7, and so far, so good. Everything is working okay. Nothing significant is lost.

However, there has still been changes.

I'm trying out the new IE instead of the Avant browser that I used to use. That meant, however, that now my old bookmarks are now merged with my new bookmarks. And you know what that means...I have to repeat all that work of checking old links to see what still works.

Also, I lost my old picture editor and am trying out Picasa3 as both the editor and the picture uploader for Blogger. Things seem to be okay, but the learning curve is a bit steep for my middle-aged brain. Like, I just spent the last 10 minutes figuring out how to edit a picture. It turns out that my screen window wasn't showing the bottom where all the choices were. Huh. Move around the window and all was fixed.

I know, whiny, whiny, whiny. Moving on....

I've decided to knit a bit on the Mirepoix ribbing EVERY DAY until it gets the length necessary. That's the only way it will every get done.

This is what I did today (from the marker).





It's 8 inches now. If I do this much every day (or maybe even half as much), I should be ready for the bodice in another week. (and then it'll be decision time on the colors. I've been ignoring that for as long as possible.)

Of course, I still haven't tried it on, so I might have to start over. But I think not. (At least, I hope not.)

October Roundup

What did I finish in October....

Hmmm....

Well, DS#2's room was finished and all the re-doing of various rooms is now done. For just the moment, I'm sure, but still it's done.

Let's see....on the knitting front....

I felted a pink and black Lucy bag and it's all dry and ready to go...

Hmmm....

I guess that's it.

Huh....

Not much to say about that, is there?

Wait, I'll list some excuses...

I'm working on 4 projects, usually knitting on at least 2 on any given day.
1. an afghan
2. a vest with endless ribbing
3. a pair of socks
4. a scarf that's the closest to being done of all the four.

Okay, so not much done but lots of things being worked on.

There, I feel much better.

Being myself

We don't really "do" Halloween at our house, but usually go to our church's fall festival where the kids play games, win prizes, and get candy. This year they also had a costume contest.

I wasn't allowed to go as myself (said the kids), so about an hour before we left I was thinking...

What can I do to easily take my knitting with me?

And I decided to go as an Obsessed Knitter.




Easy costume...I just went around putting on one of everything I've made. (I chose a short sleeved sweater since I knew that all that other wool would make me hot.) And, as every knitter knows, nothing that you knit for yourself matches, so neither did I.

The best part? I took my knitting with me (that's my "nothing-at-all" scarf that has grown quite larger.) It was actually quite a good way to knit a scarf and I got quite a lot done over the course of the evening.

So....maybe it was a costume, or maybe it was just me being myself. You decide.

Cake and...nothing at all

I tend to not read many blogs besides the knitting ones, but occasionally I run across an interesting one that I add to my list. Two of my favorites are about food.

Cake, to be exact.

Bakerella makes some beautiful things, especially her cake pops. And what can be better than cheesecake on a stick?

Last week, though, she helped out on a marriage proposal. You can see the question here and then the explanation here. It just made me tear up, I tell you.


Another blog always good for a laugh is called Cake Wrecks where "professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong". While divorce isn't at all funny, Divorce cakes are. And how about these Literal LOLs?


Being inspired by all this cake-y-ness, DD#2 and I decided to make our own cake using fondant for the very first time.

What's the purpose of fondant, you ask? Well, it must be to look good, 'cause it sure isn't to taste good. Yuck.

We made lots of colored fondant, so we put on lots of stars (hey, we weren't eating them anyway, so the more the merrier.)



It was a fun experiment but I don't picture us doing that very often. It's a lot of work for something that doesn't taste good.

Move along, now, there's nothing to see here.



Nothing, I tell you.