I went to Knit Happens with Hillary and Rick last week to pick up some Muench Touch Me so that I could make each of them a Vintage Velvet scarf, since Rick fell in love with Kris’s at the bar last weekend. They didn’t have enough of the colors that they wanted, so they ordered it from the website, but I picked up some Koigu KPPPM in P314 and P334, and some Lorna’s Laces Helen’s Lace in Gold Hill.

Then the yarn that they ordered arrived here on Friday, so I was able to start Rick’s scarf. Here, we are about 1/4 of the way through - almost done with the first ball of yarn and the 3rd pattern repeat.

I adore working with this yarn. It is so unbelievably soft and cushy, and Rick picked a great color (#3601 - Plum). Hillary’s will be in color #3640 - Darkest Lilac. If I can keep up this pace, I might have Rick’s done by this weekend. Not sure about that, but it would be awesome.

In between repeats on the scarf, I cast on some of the Koigu (the P314) to make Marnie MacLean’s Wyvern Socks. I am about 3 repeats into the foot part of the pattern so far. I am really loving the way they are working up!

Woo and hoo!

I had a discussion last night with hubby regarding the current length of his socks and the amount of yarn left. When he realized that I wasn’t actually kidding about then turning into knee socks, he told me to forget using up the yarn and just make them the same length as a pair of his other socks. I checked those today, and I was actually able to cast off the neverending socks! They ended! Yay!

Pics to follow once my model is home from work.

ETA: And now, my hubby in his natural habitat - at his computer.
Oh, yes, and his socks. His not knee-high socks, which he has pronounced very comfy and warm.

I forgot to post this earlier. As I was watching the Olympics Tuesday night, Rowena joined me. The Ladies’ Short Program was on, and Rowena did something I have never seen her do before - she stood there and watched the tv. She was completely entranced by this one skater (and now I don’t remember who it was - one of the Japanese women, I think). As soon as this skater was done, Rowena lost interest and walked away. Seriously - she has never even glanced at the tv before, and she was just suddenly fascinated by this skater. Silly, silly cat.

… or possibly horrified.

I have decided that 2 completed projects is enough to make me feel like an Olympic success, so I will not be declaring anything else “official” events. That doesn’t mean I don’t have challenges for myself.

For example - Kris’s socks. I ordered this yarn in my first-ever Knit Picks order, back in September. I cast them on back in November or December, and they languished for a while at the just-past-the-toe point. I picked them back a while ago, and did get some work done on them in Omaha. I turned the corner (ok, the heels) on them shortly before the beginning of the Olympics, and have been doing the ribbing (3×2) ever since. Hence the title of this post and the following ditty, which has been running through my head (with apologies to the late Shari Lewis)

These are the socks that never end
They just go on and on, my friend.
Somebody started knitting them, not knowing what they was
And she’ll continue knitting them forever just because…

And yes, I know the grammar is wrong - it’s a rhyme thing. =) I asked Kris how long he wanted the cuffs, and he said “Can you just go until you run out of yarn?”. When will I learn not to ask him things about knitting projects? This is how I got to do the cabled sweater (yes - the one I just turned into a turtleneck). So, I’ve been doing 3×2 ribbing. And the yarn just keeps coming. I weighed it tonight - I have 22g left of each ball. Put together, that’s almost a FULL BALL of yarn. How can I have that much left when I am making socks for a man with size 12 feet? I swear - these are going to be knee socks by the time they are (finally) finished. Insane.

I got a little something in the mail today. Clearly, my SP is a part of the “Postcard confusion” contingent, since this came postmarked from Boston, and from my first package, I know my SP is from Canada. I’ve been really good about not snooping, though, so I still don’t know who she is.

Ok, clearly I either underestimate my knitting speed or overestimate the difficulty level of patterns, because I figured I would take most of the rest of the Olympics to get Kris’s sweater ripped back and re-knit.

I was wrong. I did it in less than 24 hours.

It started out like this:

Not bad, but the neck is a little wonky and wide, and it just looks, well, odd. So, he asked me to fix it. I was totally ok with that, since it was the first thing I had designed, and I really wanted it to be nice-looking and, you know, wearable.

We talked about it, and we decided on making it a turtleneck. I figured I would rip back to before I started the short rows that I did across the back of the neck, and start again. I ended up holding about 18 stitches in the center front, and working short rows around the back from there, continuing the raglan decreases at the same time. Once I got it to a place I liked, I had him put it on to check the neckline, and then I started the ribbing for the turtleneck. After knitting during yesterday’s Olympics, I had him check the length of the neck, and he decreed it satisfactory. So, as of about 8:30 last night, my second event was completed.

And here he is, in his new, improved sweater.
And I swear, he is the only human being I know who decides that it is a good idea to shave his head when the weather turns COLD. He’s silly like that.

By the way, thank you all for your lovely compliments about my sweater - I am really thrilled with how it came out, and I really enjoyed working on it. I have some yarn left over, so I think I might make a scarf to go with it.

So, now my decision is this: do I start a third project, or do I just accept that I completed my Olympic challenge and be happy about it?

I did it! The sweater is complete! I set in one sleeve and seamed one side last night, and finished the other side this morning.
Ta da! (Modeled photo later once my photographer gets home from work)

Things I learned on this sweater:
1. I really love lace. Way more than I even thought I did.
2. I really hate weaving in ends. I think I will avoid stripes in the future.
3. Seaming is kind of fun, unless you are dealing with fluffy fuzzy sparkly yarns. Then, it’s kind of annoying.
4. Stripes, while making for lots of ends to weave, give very good checkpoints for seaming.

The combination of #2 and #3 makes me think that when I do the Hodgepodge sweater, I may re-work the pattern to be done in the round to cut down on both the number of ends to weave and the seaming with fuzzy yarn.

As usual, I bought some extra of the yarn, because I am completely paranoid about running out. So, I have leftovers! I might make a scarf out of it, since I really do like the lace pattern from the sweater. And I think it would be fun to have a scarf to wear with it - just a little something extra at the neck.

As I was taking pictures and winding up the leftovers, Rowena came over to check it out. I think she likes the sparkly yarn, don’t you? She’s such a silly kitty.

So - now the plan is to fix Kris’s sweater and turn it into a turtleneck. I just have to figure out how to pick up stitches and work them so that the twisted ribbing shows the right way when he folds the turtleneck over.

ETA: Hubby is home from work, so here it is being modeled.
Oh, and yes I am standing in the exact same backyard that I posted pictures of last Saturday. Everything melted!

Wow - is it really Day 7, or have I miscounted? ETA: Yup - I miscounted. Day 1 was Saturday. They don’t count the day of Opening Ceremonies.

Anyway, I finished knitting my second sleeve last night while watching the very cute American men moguls skiers. Seriously - if I had known skiers were that hot, I might have considered trying it.

So, here we are as of today:
We have a front, a back, and two sleeves! All that is left is to assemble the sweater and do the neck edging (which I think is just pick up stitches and then immediately bind them off), and then a light blocking.

I am still a little nervous about the assembly using the Patons Lacette. The mohair in it tends to make it a little grabby, and since I’m not the world’s fastest hand stitcher, it may take me a while to get this thing together. Plus, this will be the first time I have done set-in sleeves. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

If all goes really well today and tomorrow, I might even be able to wear this to see Bebe Neuwirth tomorrow night, which I had said in my original post about deciding to make this sweater, before I realized that I was off on the dates involved! Too weird.

Oh - and check out the Olympics countdown timer I snagged from the Yarn Harlot. (Over there - in the sidebar) Isn’t it fun?

I opened my mailbox today to find a present for me from my lovely Knittyboard SP! Look at the goodies she sent me:

That is a ball of KnitPicks Palette in “Petal” - a gorgeous shade of pink, a very sweet note, a yummy-looking bar of dark chocolate (which I will be hiding from hubby), a little sheepy eraser, and 100g of spectacularly lovely roving in pinks and blues and purples. I absolutely need to practice with my spindle so that I can spin this and make something awesome from it.

The sheepy eraser will be keeping me company at my computer, and I think I have decided that the Palette will be stepping in to replace the ball of “Bark” I was going to use for the Lace and Fais Isle Pullover from the Vogue Holiday Issue. I got out the Lemon, Apricot, and Twig that I bought for it, and when I took the Bark out and put the Petal in, it went from so-so to really pretty.
Old combo - on the left, new combo on the right:

Suddenly, I really want to work on this sweater! Isn’t it funny how just one ball of yarn can do that to a project?

Thank you so much, SP - I love my goodies! I hope you are having fun on your trip!

There was also a package today from Jimmy Beans Wool. This was the first time I had ordered from them, and I was impressed with their service. I got an email within a very short period of time letting me know that something I had ordered was out of stock and asking if I wanted to sub colors or wait for it to come in. (I opted to wait) Today, I received the package with the in-stock items (which are for my SP and will therefore not be appearing here) and they put a couple of peppermints in with it - how cute!

Oh! With the Olympics updates, I totally forgot to post pictures of the yarn I picked up when Jen and I went to All About Yarn on Monday.

I picked up two skeins of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in “Woad” (which totally appeals to the King Arthur fan in me), with plans to make myself a second Branching Out. It was such a nice denimy blue that I thought it would go really well with a lot of things.

I also found this gorgeous lace yarn - Ornaghi Filati Merino Oro in color 1208 - a wonderful deep red. No idea what I am going to make out of this, but it is going to be something challenging, just to be worthy of this amazing cobweb-weight lace yarn. (I’m thinking something from my copy of Folk Shawls) If anyone has used this yarn and has any suggestions/wisdom/warnings, I’m listening.

And finally, I could not leave without this amazing hank of Cherry Tree Hill Cascade Lace - 1000 yards of 100% silk in the “Gypsy Rose” colorway. I kept looking at it, and picking it up, and putting it back down, but I finally decided that I could not walk away without it. It needs to be something awesome, but I’m not sure what just yet. For now, I am content to just admire it.

I should probably go fold some laundry so I can go back to my Olympics project guilt-free. =)

Well, I made up for being a slacker yesterday - I finished up the front of my sweater!
So, just the sleeves and finishing to go! Yay!

If I do finish early (which is looking like it might happen, but I am not counting on it), I am trying to decide what I want to do as a second “event” for the Olympics. I might challenge myself to pick up Kris’s sweater and fix it. He and I decided that the neckline just wasn’t working, so I need to rip that back, and he asked if I could possibly re-do it as a turtleneck. So, that is going to be my next challenge - a second KO event if I finish the sweater early, otherwise just a personal challenge to get it finished before it is too warm for him to wear it.

So, the snow kept me home today, which means I had lots of time to work on my Knitting Olympics sweater, right?

Um…yeah. I’ve done one more repeat of the lace on the front of the sweater.

But I have an excuse for the lack of knitterly dedication - I got bitten by the baking bug today, and I made three batches of biscotti!

See:
(Dark chocolate, dried cherries, walnuts, and coconut on the left, white chocolate, dried pineapple, mango and papaya, and macadamia nuts in the middle, and semi-sweet chocolate, dried cranberries, and almonds on the right)

The plan is to get some more knitting done tonight before I go to bed (maybe the third lace repeat), and then hopefully finish the front of the sweater tomorrow and get the first sleeve started. I’ve still got lots of time left, but I don’t want to get overconfident, because I am figuring that the seaming is going to be interesting with the Lacette.

I guess it comes from having grown up in Pittsburgh and later lived in Meadville (which involved trekking through Edinboro to Erie to get to a real mall), but since we moved to Richmond and now Maryland, I just can’t take most of the “Major snowstorm coming” weather reports seriously. I mean, come on - the first year we were in Richmond, we got up one Saturday morning and decided to make pancakes. Kris ran to the store to grab buttermilk and syrup, and the place was mobbed. Why? It had “snowed” overnight - a DUSTING. You could STILL SEE GRASS. Puh-lease.

So, when they were calling for snow yesterday and last night, I sort of held off believing that we would actually get anything significant. It did start snowing yesterday afternoon, and the dogs were out playing in it for a bit last night:

So, I got up this morning, not sure of what I was going to see. Turns out, we got actual snow! Wet, heavy snow that seems like it is putting stress on some of the power lines, because we’ve had a few flickers this morning.

In fact, the tree by our garage has taken on an interesting shape. It is a Japanese maple, and normally stands pretty much upright. Today? Not so much. I just hope it is ok and doesn’t take any damage from the stress on the branches.

The nasty, falling-down, we-need-to-get-rid-of-it shed in the backyard actually looks almost picturesque. The snow covers a lot of faults.

I also took a picture of the bench by the tree. This is the one where I took the pictures of the yarn for my Olympics sweater.

So, yes, it’s very pretty outside. It’s not bitterly cold, which is nice. I was planning on making a trip to Stitch DC’s Georgetown location for their first anniversary sale today, but I think I’ll be staying home instead. Not that I can’t drive in this, or that I think Jen can’t (since she was actually going to drive), but I’m not sure how much I trust the people who DIDN’T grow up in the more northern sections of the country.

It’s ok - I can just watch my puppies play outside from time to time.

Or, you know, sleep on the couch while I work on my sweater.