must.knit.faster

Carol commented a couple days ago that she liked the picot hem on the gloves I'm knitting, and asked if I'd teach it to her and some friends. That sounds like a great reason to have a Football Sunday Knit Party if I've ever heard one. My livingroom will hold 5 or 6 guests, so I am decreeing October 21 to be Football Sunday Knit Party at Delana's house day. The first 6 people who RSVP to delanaknits(at)gmail(dot)com will have a reserved spot. We can do the picot hem and the toe up sock cast ons you all were interested in!

Mermaid continues to fly off the needles. I am currently almost 4 days ahead of the schedule I set for myself in order to have this finished in time for Mom's birthday. After today's email discussion with a blog friend and a Ravelry invitation, I wish I was more like 14 days ahead of schedule.



Knitfitt's nonmitts are making good progress too. The ease with which these are working up, as well as how very much I am loving the pattern, has convinced me that I do indeed need a pair of these for myself. I purchased 3 balls of the Cashsoft, but I think I'm only going to need 2. Once done with this pair, I will exchange the leftover ball for another color. There was some lovely purple when I was at the LYS that I might just decide on.



I will not break my self imposed WIP rules. I will not break my self imposed WIP rules. Maybe if I chant this enough, I won't run out and buy yarn and cast on for my next major project. I will finish the Mermaid jacket and Knitfitt's nonmitts before buying yarn. I will finish the Lake Park Gloves and silk booties before casting on. Wish me luck!!

I was originally thinking about making Katherine of Aragon as my first "Tudor Roses" sweater. This morning as I drank my coffee, I was leaning more towards Elizabeth of York. Then I got a comment on my blog from Marina. She is getting ready to cast on Mary Tudor and suggested we knit it together. Next thing I know, she's invited me to the Tudor Roses Knitalong group in Ravelry. Buying lots of lovely jumper weight wool and casting on is all I've been able to think about ever since.

I will not break my self imposed WIP rules. I will not break my self imposed WIP rules.

Must.Knit.Faster
Must.Knit.Faster

Score!

I received a purchase I made on Ebay yesterday. I paid quite a bit for it, but it was money well spent in my book. I got a copy of Alice Starmore's "Tudor Roses", and love every single sweater in it! The only problem I'm going to have is deciding which to cast on first. I'm thinking Katherine of Aragon right now, but that could change next time I flip through the book LOL.

I'm making good progress on the Mermaid jacket. Got through the 3rd hem gusset last night and spent the better part of my knitting time today working on it. I'm pretty sure I'll get through the center back gusset and possibly the 4th hem gusset tomorrow.



Making good progress on Knitfitt's nonmitts too. The photo shows my progress through last night, and I did work a bit on them today too. Only a couple more repeats til I finish the thumb gore.

I love progress

I almost feel like this Mermaid jacket is knitting itself. It's amazing how fast the knitting of the body is going compared to the sleeves. I guess I'm just not a big fan of miles of solid color garter stitch! At the rate this is going, I might be done with the project in 2 weeks.



Managed to get a few more rounds done on Knitfitt's nonmitts last night too. Still won't photographs of the pattern side, but I got a pretty good shot of the ribbing tonight. Instead of using my normal background (aka the comforter), I grabbed some white paper hoping to capture the true blue of the yarn.

I love the result. And isn't that flair that the picot hem is giving them nice? Now I really want to get some of my WIPs done so I can cast on a pair of these for myself!

Mermaids and Mittens

Actually got a couple of non-washed out photos of the Mermaid in progress today.

Both sleeves are complete, including the seaming.



And, I'm making fairly good progress on the body. The second gusset was completed after taking this photo, and tomorrow night I should be able to get through the first sleeve gusset. Not bad for only a couple week's worth of knitting. I'm not stressing over getting this done in time now.



What I'm stressing about instead, is the number of WIP's I currently have. I finally got all of them loaded into Ravelry, and boy was that a wake up call! I'm back to my old tricks. I currently have 15 projects on the needles, and I admit freely that I am itching to cast on a few more. I'm a bit ashamed of myself, so a change is in order. Until I get this WIP problem resolved, I am only allowing myself to actively work on 2 projects at a time. Of course, right now the first priority is completing the Mermaid jacket. The second project I have chosen to work on is knitfitt's nonmitts.

Knitfitt is my Ravelry Mitten Exchange pal, and since I want her to see (sorta) what she'll be getting, I'll be blogging about my progress. I'm only showing the "palm" side of them though, so she'll still be surprised when she gets her package. I am so in love with this pattern, and even more so with the yarn. I chose RYC Cashsoft since it contains cashmere. Knitfitt mentioned that she liked cashmere as a joke, but I do aim to please :o)

I do believe that I will make myself a pair of these in the same yarn this year.

I've altered the pattern just a smidge. I didn't like the way the pattern instructed knitting only a hem for the back of the hand side, and chose to do a picot hem instead. I think this will be just the right touch to go with the pattern stitch.



I wonder how long it will take me to whittle down that WIP list so I can cast on something new?

Ravelry is going to be bad for my knitting progress

Although I didn't get as much knit on Mermaid 2 as I had hoped this weekend (thanks to Ravelry), I did get some work done on her. Pardon the poor photo quality. Both were taken when there was no more natural light and the flash on my camera washed out the colors a bit :o(

Last night I finished up the first stripe section and was hoping to get to the underarm gusset today.



Didn't happen though. I did get the first gusset done before snapping this photo, but Ravelry called and I set her aside for the night.



My main goal for this weekend was to finish up the OSU socks, and I actually managed to get that done!! Woohoo! No late birthday present for my stepdad.



I pulled out the silk booties to work on before the football games started today. I'm just about to the heel turn on the first one. Love the colors in this. I will probably concentrate on knitting more of this project this week since the OSU socks are done. Hopefully I can have them finished next weekend.



Ravelry is going to be bad for me I can tell already. I can't stay away from it. And, to make matters worse, I keep adding more and more projects to my queue and staring at them longingly. Today I gave in to the impulse to cast one on. Just what I needed eh? Yet another WIP. Behold the beginnings of my Lake Park Gloves. So far I'm liking the striping I'm getting from the yarn I chose. Again, poor photo quality. The greens are really much more vibrant than they look here.

Yay!!

I finally got my invite to Ravelry! I'm HerHeart over there. Feel free to look me up. Slowly but surely I'm getting all my projects put in there. Stash will be another story. Ugggggg just thinking about digging everything out to get it entered gives me a headache. But, once it's all done I'll feel so organized!

I finished up the second Mermaid sleeve this weekend, and cast on for the body last night. At the moment it slightly resembles a purple curly fry from Arby's, but that should change soon.



Most of my knitting time yesterday was spent in front of the television watching all the teams I picked lose, and working on the second OSU sock. Should have this finished up by the weekend.

Awwwwww

Awwwwww look at the little bunny dishcloth. Isn't it cute? Well on my way to completing 4 this month. This marks my third.



Awwwww look at the adorable Saartje's Booties. Aren't these about the most adorable baby girl booties you've ever seen? My co-worker told me that the only socks that fit her daughter are the ones I made for her. I was "awwwwww"ed into making more lol.



Awwwww look at the new pair of booties on the needles. I sure hope I get them knit quick enough to fit Ailsa.



Enough awready *snort*. Onto our regular adult knitting content.

The first OSU sock should be off the needles tomorrow. Just have to do the toe.






Can't say I'm keeping up with my goals for the Mermaid jacket. I was hoping to have this sleeve done by tomorrow evening, but there's too much to do on it yet. Should have it finished this weekend though. Lots of knitting time on Sunday with football on the television.

Goof!!

My personal knitting goal for yesterday was to get through the heel turn on the OSU socks. I was so happy when I completed that last short row ...

... until I took a progress photo that is. I took one look at the photo and groaned. Do you see what I did?




Not so obvious in that side shot is it? Well, how about when I take a photo of what the sock would look like from the front when worn?



Yeah, good ol' EYES BUCK! LOL.

Of course, I wasn't so much LOLing yesterday as whining because I was going to have to frog the heel and reknit it.

I did the frogging and reknitting immediately so I wouldn't have to stress over it all day, then completed a repeat of the stripe pattern for good measure. Much better.



I've completed one dishcloth and one facecloth for September now too. Put the finishing touches on this one this morning.



And finished this one earlier in the week.



The first sleeve for the purple Mermaid jacket is complete and the second is well on its way. I'm hoping to finish that second sleeve this week along with finishing the first OSU sock. Also on the goal list for this week is to complete a pair of baby booties.

16 pair down .... 36 to go!!

I managed to get another pair of socks off the needles over the holiday weekend. I'm really pleased with how these turned out. I even have enough yarn left over to make another pair of those cute Coriolis baby socks with.



Pulled out the Bagstopper and worked on it a bit too. I'm just about to run out of the variegated cotton, and need to decide if I'm going to buy another ball of it or just finish it up with solid white.



Tonight I finally pulled out that other gift I need to get done in October. It's going to be tough finishing in time I think. I could be wrong however. The sleeves of the other Mermaid I knit took longer than the rest of the jacket, and since I will be done with one of the sleeves tonight, I could surprise myself and finish this in record time.