Sigh

Friday. Whew. Have you ever noticed that short weeks that start on Tuesday due to a holiday on Monday seem to be longer and arduous than a regular 5-day week? Maybe it's cramming 5 days into 4, or just being off one's schedule. I love the day off, but find that by the end of the week I'm pooped.

The knitting has been slow going this week. I've started on K's cabled hat, but haven't gotten far. I finished a sleeve of the sweater, which leaves a little more hood and one more sleeve to go. I'm still hoping to finish by the end of February, but I'm not sure. Maybe finish all the knitting, and not finish the finishing? I have to admit that I'm very nervous about the finishing. Since this is the first sweater of its kind, I don't know what blocking is going to do to it, or if it will fit me, or look awful when it's all done. I know it will not be perfect, primarily because I have not always been consistent in the knitting of it. For instance, I garter-stitched the first couple stitches of most rows on the front, but didn't do that at all for the back. Fortunately, it's not the kind of sweater I'll be wearing to a 5-star restaurant, and if it is a cozy at-home piece that looks a little wonky, that will be OK since it was a learning experience.

Anyway, the camera made it back from Australia with proof it went there in the first place.


And the camera's return allowed me to document my first FO of 2007:


(sorry for the awful self-shot (not even a portrait)...my forehead is not that enormous, nor am I a cone head.

I'm loving the hat, and have gotten nice comments on it, albeit in the knitting store when I went to go buy yarn for K's hat. It's nice and warm and not at all scratchy, which is very important with hat!

Waiting for the time to pass...

thanks, knitty! feel better! (get your own card here)

Cables FO!!

Finished the cabled hat tonight. I'm SO happy about this since it's, to put it mildly, frigid outside. Still no camera (hopefully this weekend), so you can see the pretty green-ness of the cables. It's a little roomy, but I think if I had knit any less, it would have been a little too short, and I have plenty of short hats.

I've made a little progress on the sweater, I'm almost done with one sleeve (the couch project) and 1/3 of the hood (the out-and-about project). Hoping to get all the pieces done this weekend so I can block, seam and finish next weekend...definitely before the end of the month! I have other projects I want to do, but I won't let myself cast on for anything until the sweater, like the cables is an FO.

Pictures soon!

Cables ho!

Well, my first class was great! I am quite pleased. Cabling is really very easy...I could probably have figured it out myself, but a class is a great excuse to socialize and knit, so why not, eh? The project is a cabled hat (from Stitch & Bitch Nation, I think). I would show pictures, but K. has taken my camera to Australia with him, so I, and the blog, will be picture-less for the next week or so. Oh, well. It's sad that my camera is more well-traveled than me...

Progress

So the sweater I've vowed to finish by the end of February is the "Not Your Standard-Issue Sweatshirt" from the Yarn Girls' Guide to Simple Knits. Not the one that's available on knitpicks.com, which is a variation with cables. Since I don't do cables (yet...check with me tomorrow after my first cable-knitting class at StitchDC tonight!), I'm doing the straight stockinette stitch, which I really like.

Honestly, I don't know what took me so long in getting this sweater done. I had the back finished by this time last year, and started the front...but then, oh yeah. I had a MA thesis to finish, moved from NYC to DC, then really didn't feel like sweater-knitting in the summer, started other projects, went on vacation, and well, here I am.

But...I have made progress. I finished the front last night:

So now I have that and the back (long-finished):


And now I've started on the sleeve.

Two sleeves and a hood away. Hooray! I can totally do it. Lots of knitting time this weekend since K. will be on the long flight to Australia. I can't wait!

Knit Along!!

I've joined my first knit along: February is for Finishing. Hopefully it's the kick in the pants I've been looking for to actually finish something.

Several members of the knit along seem quite ambitious with several projects set to be finished. Me, I'm goin' for just one. A sweater I started in December of 2005 (ouch)...It's the "not your standard-issue sweatshirt" from The Yarn Girls Guide to Simple Knits book. Simple it is--mostly stockinette stitch with some seed stitch thrown in, but it's a good zone out in front of the TV knit. I just haven't worked on it for ages. I figured I should put this sweater away before starting on the next sweater--a cardi for K, my boyfriend.

I've got the back, and most of the front. It still needs sleeves and a hood. And by golly, I will finish it! In February!! I'd post pictures, but there is nowhere in my place with good light at this time of the day. Maybe tomorrow.

Oh, and if I get the sweater done...I may try for socks. But I won't get ahead of myself.

In other news, our kitchen is grouted! Once I get the camera going in decent light, look for wildly updated pictures of the kitchen. It's like a different room, and I have to say that being able to cook here is a pleasure. It's the nicest kitchen I've ever had (in my adult life, that is).

For the Feast of St. Brigid*

It's the Blogger (silent) Poetry Reading today, and I'm so excited to be part of such a great idea. This poem is one of my favorites...by one of my favorite poets ever: Rainer Maria Rilke

Remembering

And you wait, are awaiting the one thing
that will infinitely increase your life;
the powerful, the uncommon,
the awakening of stones,
depths turned towards you.

Dimly there gleam in the bookcase
the volumes in gold and brown;
and you think of lands journeyed through,
of pictures, of the apparel
of women lost again.

And you know all at once: That was it.
You arise, and before you stands
a bygone year's
anguish and form and prayer.


More this weekend on knitting, the apartment, and visits from parental figures.

*The word around the blog-town is that it's St. Brigid's Day, but that was actually yesterday. Today is Candlemas, otherwise known as (among other variations), the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. Either way, it's a good day. Especially since, in secular lore, Puxatawney Phil didn't see his shadow and spring is on its way!