Mid-week update, still photoless

I'm still adrift on sleeve island. I think I'm about 1/2 way done with the second sleeve of the PBSJ. I just did the last set of decrees in the arm, and have 28 rows to go before I start binding off for the cap. I still haven't had the time or energy to block anything, but my parents are taking C on Saturday, so I will add that to the list of chores do be done while childless. Besides, the floor of his room is the best place to block in the house.
The rest of my knitting has been abandoned until I am done with the PBSJ. Almost done.
I will switch over and use these 4's on the Alpine Lace Scarf. I don't think I'll frog and start over, I'll just deal with one repeat being done on smaller needles.
And I still need to from the Deep V Argyle Vest back to the ribbing, but that can wait.

Monday again.

Monday is for Weight loss
And I'm up again this week, back up to 225.8 Ug. I've regained almost everything I lost in January. Doing WW online isn't working for me, so I will start attending meetings tonight. Which will put the posting of the weekly weigh in at Monday nights, or Tuesday mornings. Oh well.
Knitting Front
I finished the second front piece for the PBSJ on Friday night, but didn't take any photos. I hope to start blocking this in pieces tonight after my WW meeting, after DS is in bed. Instead of casting on for the second sleeve, I decided to "swatch" for the Deep V Argyle Vest. By swatch, I mean, look and see that the called for gauge is the same that I am knitting the PBSJ at, and cast on for the vest. I am knitting the 44 inch version, since that is the largest I am willing to accept that I am right now. This is just for practice after all. I managed to complete the ribbing at the bottom and about 13 rows of the color work when I decided to check my gauge.
You guessed it. Its off. Instead of getting 22 stitches per 4 inches, I'm getting 27. I have to go up a needle size, which I never do. I'm a loose knitter and normally have to go down a needle size or three.
I did put the vest aside last night and cast on for the second sleeve, and will try to have it finished this week, including blocking and piecing, but I'm not really holding my breath.
The shawl has been neglected all weekend in anticipation on switching over to the size 4 KP needles that will be sharp enough to do the P2togs.

ETA: I started a new blog to journal my weight loss struggles at http://shrinkingcynder.blogspot.com/
I will try to keep this blog more about knitting and less whining.

Row counters not matching up?

I am almost done with the right front on the PBSJ. When I knit the first side, I was meticulous about making notes about which rows I did all the shaping on, as well as where the diamond pattern was as a back up. This morning while I was doing my post shower knitting (yes, I knit first thing in the morning while DH is getting ready, before its time to get C up and ready) I noticed that the diamond shape and the row # were not matching up with the first side. So I grabbed the left front, and matched up each diamond and noticed I needed to do another repeat in what I was sure was only 8 rows left. Either I flipped the wheel too much on the right front, or not enough on the left front. I'm just glad I thought to check before I started binding off for the neck. I should finish up the right front tonight, and instead of starting the sleeve right away, I will start swatching for my next sweater pattern, the Deep V Argyle Vest, also by the talented Eunny Jang. Her third design this year. As I have mentioned before, I will be using leftover yarn for this. I have 10 balls of Merino Style in Storm, which will be the MC, and I should have 9 ball in Honey, left over from the PBSJ. I don't know if the color combo is in style currently, but to me they work together, or at least I hope they work better than the colors I chose for the Endpaper Mitts did.
I did cast on for the Alpine Lace Scarf from Victorian Lace Today on Tuesday, and progress has been really slow. Since I'm using my trusty Addi Turbos, the P2tog's on the back row are hard to do. The pattern so far is really easy and fun to do, but I am only getting two to 4 rows done a night. Maybe after I finish up some other projects, and make a travel copy of the patten things will go faster. There is something about knitting from the book that slows you down.

FO: Print O'The Wave Stole

She is blocked and unpinned.

Stats: Print O' The Wave Stole, by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Knit Picks Shimmer in Turquoise Splendor, 2 skeins
Needles: Addie Turbos, size 3
Cast On 1/14 Cast Off 2/17
Mods: I knit in one piece instead of two in order to avoid having to graft the center.

Thoughts: I loved knitting this. The pattern was easy to memorise, and lots of fun. This is the first rectangular shawl that I have completed (two prior attempts went to the frog pond). I have decided that I HATE using variegated yarn for shawls. I got this yarn for Mother's day last year, thinking that I would knit Icarus in it, but I never got past the first chart with it. I do wish that Knit Picks would come out with this blend in a solid color yarn, since it feels so YUMMY to work with.

I do need to get better at at taking photos of my work.

Tuesday update with photos.

The POTW stole is off the needles, and being blocked right now. I did have enough yarn to finish her, and had a tiny amount of yarn left over.
















Next up on the lace front: The Alpine Lace Scarf from VLT, knit in the KP Alpaca Cloud, Midnight.

Monday is for Weightloss

but this week I am stalled, again. Still at 226. Grrr. I was doing so great the first half of last week, I was down 2 lbs early on, looking like I was going to make a full recovery in the gain, than V-day and AF hit on the same day, and I have been a chocolate-eating-pizza-gorging-whats-a-veggie? girl ever since.

This week I will do better.
This week there will be no massive chocolate eating.
This week there will be no binging on doughnuts while working OT after already having MacDonald's
This week I will make the time to work out even if I have to drag my fat ass out of bed at 5 am to do it.
This week I will not trip and bang up my knee to where I can't work out like I've done the last two weeks


On the knitting front:
I finished the POTW stole, and have a photograph of it pre-blocked in the camera, at home, unable to post it right now.
I finished the first sleeve of the PBSJ, and cast on for the right front. I think I should get this finished this week, or early next week. Then I can use the needles for the Alpine Lace Shawl from VLT. I'm thinking I'll use the Midnight Alpaca KP lace weight yarn for it, and see how much yarn I use.

Thursday Morning Ramblings

C has an ear infection, and was up half of the night screaming. I am trying to wean him (finally), and he wanted his Boo. DH would take him in the other room and cuddle on the recliner, and C would calm down afterwards, but when they came back to bed C would smell be and start crying for his Boo again. I tried getting up, leaving the room and sleeping in the guest room (which surprised Ying) but C wouldn't stop screaming. I finally caved at 2:30 and gave him Boo, but and he slept latched on for the rest of the night, which meant that I didn't get any sleep at all. *Sigh*
This isn't working anymore. I told DH that co-sleeping needs to stop if C thinks that I will be his all night pacifier. When we get the tax refund I want to get him a twin sized bed to go in his own room, so we can lay down with him at night. DH thinks that we can move the toddler bed in his room, but he hasn't yet in the 7 months I have been asking for him to do it.
Weaning C has been an ongoing struggle since Thanksgiving. I know I made the promise to myself to nurse him until he was two, and after that to play it by ear, but now I am regretting nursing him so long. He will be 2 1/2 next month, and is more attached to the boos than I though he would be, but I am so resenting all the nursing we do at night. At least he hasn't attacked me after work the last two nights, and has waited until we were doing the bedtime routine to ask.

On the knitting front, I have 17 edging repeats left on the POTW stole, and should finish it on Saturday. The PBSJ has not seen much action this week, and the arm is taking much longer than I anticipated to knit. I am on row 47, and not even halfway done with the first arm.

Monday is for Weightloss

Or weight gain as this week has been.

After the week from heck last week, not being able to work out and making bad food choices, I am up 4lbs, back at 226 *grrr* So much for fitting into a smaller size bridesmaid gown for N and D's wedding.
At the rate that I am going, I am never going to lose this weight.
I did work out on Saturday, starting over with the Firm beginner rotation, but tripped again on Sunday, ripping up my knee in two spots this time. I will take some Ibuprofen and try to work out tonight after C has gone to bed, but I don't think I will do that great with squats and lunges, and I know I am not going to be able to do the full tall box climb.

Knitting content ahead.
In order to make sleeve island a shorter stay, I cast on for the first sleeve of the PBSJ on Saturday, and have done the third set of decreases. I think I am almost 1/2 way to the point of doing the serious decreases for the shoulder shaping *yeah* and should finish the sleeve this week. Then next week will be the right front and maybe the second sleeve. However, I do have plenty of yarn to lengthen the sleeves, and make them more wrist length than bracelet length. I will have to debate this.
On the POTW stole, I rounded the second corner on Saturday night and am almost done with the second short side, should be turning that corner tonight. I have 34 out of 84 repeats of the border left to go. I have been doing 5-6 repeats a day, and should be finished with this next weekend.

A good week for knitting...

A Bad week for everything else.

The week started of with C and I both being sick at the same time. Normally I don't mind taking a sick day from work to stay home with him, but when he is sick (running a fever, controlled with Tylenol) the boy is one little hyper ball of non-stop energy. I needed to rest and recover myself, instead C had me playing, dancing, cleaning doggy doo (don't ask), baking, and doing a lot of holding and snuggling. Tuesday I traded off with DH so I could go into work and recover from my sick day, but had to watch C while DH had a meeting. When I finally got to work, the first thing I did was to spill my coffee all over myself and my desk. Wednesday was the 2 year anniversary of my SIL's death from Cancer. Carrying C into daycare, I tripped, spilling both of us to the ground, hurting my knee and banging his head really hard. Being a 2 year old, he has made a full recover much faster than I have.
The border of the POTW stole is coming along well. I have been averaging 5 repeats a day (more on Monday when I was home with C) and I am almost halfway done with the edging. I am not liking the stripes of the edging, but I think I will have to learn to live with it unilt it is blocked. Who knows, maybe the miracle of blocking will change my mind on that.
I have made good progress on the PBSJ. I finsihed the left front tonight, while surfing YouTube for Bollywood videos. All that I have left is the right front, which I will cast on for tomorrow, and sleeve island. So fare I have only used 6 of the 20 balls of Merino Style that I have for this, so I think I will have plenty left to make the Deep V Argyle Vest from Eunny's website as well. While the color's aren't the best combo together (MS Honey and Storm, both left over from other projects), it will give me a chance to practice stranded knitting on a larger scale than the Endpaper Mitts did, and maybe I will build enough confidence in my knitting to order the yarn to make either Wendy's Ingrid or Eunny's color work sweater from the winter IK.

Monday Weightloss, Tuesday eddition.

I'm up a pound. I'm not happy about it, but we have all been sick at the Cynder household, and I haven't had the time to workout since Wednesday, and I have been eating junk since Saturday. I am counting points today, and will have to dip into Flexies for tonight, and I know I was way over for yesterday.

C and I stayed home sick yesterday, and had pizza and made cookies, so I blue a bunch of points there. I'm trying to eat healthier today.

On the knitting front, I'm about 70 rows in the left front of PBSJ, and should finish the front by Saturday (which is my goal), and I have 14 repeats of the border done on POTW stole. However, I am paranoid that I am going to run out of yarn, so I will be keeping my fingers crossed. Since I bought these skeins last May, I doubt that the same dye lot is available.

Knitting Math.
If there are 2 rows each with 17 and 21 stitches, and 4 rows with 18, 19, and 21, that averages to 19 stitches per row and 304 stitches per repeat.
The body had 80 stitches per row and 960 stitches per repeat.
That means I can do 3.15 repeats of the border with the same yarn that it took to do the body.
84 repeats of the border divided by 3.15 equals 26.6, the equivalent number of body repeats that I could do with the same yarn. Since I ran out of yarn on the first ball in the 33rd repeat, and still have a small ball left over from the Swallowtail (in the same dye lot), I think I will be ok.
*SIGH*

Weekly Photo Progress report.

PBSJ has been mostly neglected this week. I finished the yoke piece Tuesday morning, and ignored it until Thursday morning when I cast on for the Left front. I had a few rows done by Saturday morning, but the POTW grew to a point where it no longer makes good car knitting (more on that later). While we were out running errands the last few days I got up to row 40 on the PBSJ in the car, (pardon the blurry photo), and should start on ball 6 of the Merino Style here shortly.
I have finished the body of the POTW stole! Picking up the stitches for the edging caused much stress and hair pulling, but I put markers on every quarter of the long sides and knew to pick up 60 stitches between the markers. This morning I finished the inner border, and I have done the first few repeats of the edging. I think I should be able to do 4 a day (84 repeats, divided by 4 a day should be 21 days), and have this done and blocked before D's wedding. N and D came over for dinner Friday night, and we gave D the PFS shawl. Her face lit up when she saw it, and that made the 6 weeks of working on it well worth it.


DH got me an early Valentines Day present. We decided to buy stuff for each others hobbies, so he got the new WOW expansion pack, and I got yarn...
4 Skeins of Misti Alpaca Lace in a pale pink to make one of the larger shawls in VLT, and a skein of Cascade 220 Merino in a heathered blue (already wound in a ball with plans to make Shedir from the Knitty Breast Cancer special. I chose the blue color in memory of my SIL Cindy who died of Ovarian cancer (turquoise) two years ago this week.

Cromarty, revisited

After reading that Wendy was getting ready to knit Cromarity, I had to finally post a photo of the Cromarity that I knit last year pre-blog.

Stats: Cromarity by Alice Starmore, in the Celtic Collection

Started December 31, 2005 and Finished June 14, 2006

Yarn: Brown Sheep Natura Sport in Green Apple

Needles Addie Turbos size 3

The sweater is still in need of the last two neck band cables and a good blocking, but in the move to our house last June, my copy of the Celtic collection was lost. Until I can find the instructions for the cable and the dimensions for blocking, this sweater will remain a sad UFO.