Friday Friday Friday. Hooray! It's been a busy week in the school and work arenas, and I am so glad it's Friday. And I've got PLANS this weekend: birthday celebrations tonight for my friend Leslie, birthday celebrations tomorrow for my sister Michelle, a hair appointment (color), possibly a trip to Ikea, and lots of Wii time.

(Now that my nephew is almost 10 months old, it's time for him to play the Wii.)
(Kidding.)

And the Oscars on Sunday! Woo-hoo! In other news:

1. I brought my almost finished Forecast to work today, because I'm planning to go to the bead store at lunch and see if I can find buttons. Hopefully I won't be tempted to buy beading supplies. Ha.

2. I started the second Anemoi mitten, and all of my love for colorwork came rushing back. I think this one looks much better than the first one - I'm more comfortable working with two colors, and my gauge is a little looser. I hope it doesn't look vastly different than Anemoi #1...

Swirly goodness.

I'm using my Knitpicks chart holder from the start this time, and it's going so quickly. I can't wait to start working on some Zimmerman Norwegian mittens...

(God, now that I'm looking, there is a glaring mistake in that mitten. I'll need to fix it! But no ripping. I'll deal with it later.)

3. As I knit and watched Grey's Anatomy last night, two of my favorite schmoos dozed on the couch next to me. How cute is that?

Shleepy schmoos.

4. Here's my other favorite schmoo in her favorite spot:

Chili guards the house from here.

She's a good girl.

I think the Anemoi could be finished by this weekend if it keeps going so quickly. It's destined for someone who lives in a colder place than me, so the sooner I finish, the better. Although since we're starting to have 65-70 degree days here, I imagine that's happening in other places too. (Probably not, right?)

Okay. Back to work. Y'all have a good weekend!

Posted by Carrieoke at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)

Forecast is so close to being finished...

One sleeve down.
(Yikes. MUST CLEAN MIRROR.)

I've already woven in all my stray ends, so all I need to do is finish the second sleeve, sew the armholes, and add buttons. I'm not gonna lie to you -- I'm not totally convinced that this sweater is going to close (which may be related to my not knitting a gauge swatch, but I guess it's too late for that now...) I'm hoping that a good long soak and blocking will make it just perfect. It will, right?

After I finish this sweater, I've got a list of things I want to knit/finish:

Second Anemoi
Must-Have Cardigan (all that's left are sleeves and finishing)
Maggie (Kim Hargreaves kit)
Trellis (for my nephew)
Simple Knitted Bodice (with stash yarn)

Of course, this whole list may be derailed because I just got Stefanie Japel's new book -- Fitted Knits. Dudes. This book rocks. It's really beautiful -- lovely photos, lovely book design. And then the patterns! I'm loving it. If you've knit any Glampyre patterns before, then the silhouettes of some of the sweaters will be familiar, but the book is definitely a fresh take.

And I may have just gotten myself Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Around as well. Ahem. I've been splurging a bit lately on the knitting paraphernalia. But you look at this Bog Jacket and these Mittens and then TRY TO RESIST GETTING THAT BOOK.

I loves me some knitting blogs for inspiration.

Also: I've also started a new workout routine. It's sort of crazy for me, but so far, so good. I'm going to the gym BEFORE work on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I have to be at work around 8:00, so that means getting to the gym by 6:30am at the very latest. I know some of you (ahem) are sorta used to crazy early hours, but I am not. In fact, I hate the morning very, very much. And I love my snooze button, and I love sleeping late. BUT. I also hate getting home from work and knowing that I still need to run. Getting it out of the way in the morning leaves my whole evening free for knitting and schmoos and watching good TV. Like, ya know, Men in Trees. And Dirt.

hee.

Now, as a reward for reading that whole long post with boring details about my exercise routine, I'm posting a tiny bad quality video from the last Bling show.

Sorry for the weird quality. I'm still working on how to get my videos to look clearer...I might post a better one if I can make it work. But you get the gist. And yes, that's me in the pink stripey skirt.

Posted by Carrieoke at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (28)

A long, long time ago, some other knitters around here and I decided to make a pirate themed baby blanket for our dear friend Mary Jessica. Many, many months later, we finally finished it and gave it to her. Here's the blanket:

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I knit several squares, including the pirate ship, the anchor, and various stripeys and solids. It was my first real attempt at intarsia, so it ain't perfect, but it works from far away! And here's MJ getting the blanket:

Notice her cute pink handknit.

And here's what Tommy thinks of the whole shebang:

My blanket RAWKS.

We had so much fun catching up and making Tommy laugh. He is the happiest, bounciest baby ever.

Tommy wants to drool on it. NOW.

A good time was had by all.

In honor of Valentine's Day, I leave with my favorite Valentines ever, Brandon Bird's SVUtines. In the criminal justice system, you're considered especially gorgeous.

Have a great day!

Posted by Carrieoke at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (40)

So, I didn't have enough yarn to finish Forecast. I only had one tiny ball of yarn left...

Definitely NOT enough for two sleeves.

So, I undid the cast off edge and started winding.

Sniff. I made myself feel better by immediately ordering some Cascade 220 in order to restart this project. Then I wondered...is the cashmere-blend yummy yarn I'm currently using for Forecast still available?

Guess I should've checked that before I ordered the Cascade....

Because they TOTALLY still had the yarn! Woo-hoo! I ordered enough to finish my Forecast-in-progress...and I kept the Cascade order in. I mean, surely I can find something to knit with some yummy purple Cascade. Right?

So, I put Forecast right back on the needles.

I knit the ribbing longer, and did my buttonbands, and now I'm on the sleeves.

So. Close.

Posted by Carrieoke at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (33)

That's right - I got a day off yesterday! I woke up from a lovely dream where the University was closed due to inclement weather, got on my laptop, checked the university website, and found that the University WAS closed due to "deteriorating weather conditions." Now. I know there are a lot of Northerners out there who are snickering at us behind their hands, and that's okay. Because I had the day off, and so did Jacob. yayayayayayayayayay! (Admittedly, everything was melted by 8:30, but who am I to question the University's authority? SNOW. DAY.)

I slept until 11:30, had a lovely breakfast, and then settled into the couch for a long day of knitting. I finished this:

One Anemoi Down. One to Go.

I love, love my mitten. The top isn't as crisp as I wanted it to be -- my three needle bind off leaves a little to be desired -- and there are definitely some iffy areas in terms of gauge consistency. But it looks good, and it's warm. These are intended for a gift, but I'm still deciding if I should finish this first pair as practice and then gift the second pair because they will probably look better. What do you think?

After I finished that, I decided to work for a while on this lovely sweater. Oh, how I love to knit with Rowan Wool Cotton. It's so soft and squishy and yummy delicious. I finished one sleeve (gauge swatch), and then I immediately cast on for the back:

Picot edging + garter stitch = cute.

I'm loving this pattern. I think, once finished, it will be my most wearable knit to date (that I've kept for myself.) My most wearable finished knit currently would definitely be my Central Park Hoodie, but it went to my sister. This one is all for me!

I also ventured into the stash yesterday to try and match up stash yarn with future projects. I know, I know -- it sounds insane. But, I think I succeeded! I have plans to knit Stefanie Japel's Simple Knitted Bodice next (long sleeved), and so I dove into the stash to find a suitable yarn. I came up with two options: some worsted weight organic cotton that I bought at Rhinebeck (in a creamy natural color, it's super soft), or this Elann Baby Silk (with two strands held together) in Salmon. I'm leaning towards the Baby Silk, but I'm not sure. I guess I COULD knit up a swatch in each and see which one I like better...but that's more crazy talk.

The second Anemoi will be on hold for just a bit -- I'd like to make some headway with my Maggie. But I can't wait for too long -- the colorwork is addictive. I WANT MORE.

Posted by Carrieoke at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (29)