I'm not lazy, really.

Updates:
I got on ravelry. If that doesn't get me blogging, nothing will, because it it SUPER cool.
Nobody cares but me, but I in fact was right about the amount of yarn my grandmother would need for that blanket. She handed the finished object to me with three balls of untouched yarn and a little of a fourth left. Ha. I was also right about how much yarn my MIL would need for the Snorty beach robe, but that's another story.
Snorty has survived 6 months with us as his parents. As our neighbor says, "What a cunning baby boy." No, really, she says that. She's the only person I've ever met who uses definition number 4.
There was more, I'm sure, but the boy is up and I can't remember what it was now. Sigh.
I have to learn to type and think faster, I think.

Finally finally finally.

I've finished the sweater. It's not blocked yet, but here it is.

I'm pretty happy with it, although the frogs aren't exactly what I wanted. I'm hoping they'll settle in a little with blocking. Mostly, I'm just glad I'm done.
It fits Snorty beautifully. First thing he did was smile and start sucking on the cuff. I'm taking that as approval. (Woohoo!) As of now, the earlier post with the sweater pattern reflects what I actually did.

Also, I finished that damned green blanket. The edging is too small for the center, but I officially don't care.


I got some crappy news of a personal nature early last week, and needed to make something to counteract my sadness. I made an apple hat:


It's a little big on the Muffin, but I did that on purpose because I made it for our friends' daughter, who is a couple months older. My own pattern, in crystal palace chenille leftover from other projects. I'll probably make a couple more for other friends' babies - it worked up in just a couple hours (gotta love crochet for speed) and I've got enough yarn.

Stash ticker:
Apple hat - I'm not going to count the apple hat, since it was technically a new project, but I think I might allow myself a small purchase when I use up the rest of the chenille, as reward for de-stashing.
Green blanket - I bought 7 balls of Skacel Contrasto in anticipation of destashing at the stash swap. I think the Green monster counts retroactively for that yarn purchase.
Snorty sweater - This one counts. Woohoo! I've built up some yarn purchasing power! Can't wait to use it, but I think I'd better be careful with it, because the other projects I have waiting are much more time-consuming than these were.
Hmmm.... what to buy....

Oh Dear Oh Dear Oh Dear

Squeakypants was napping on Thursday when I decided to grab the Lopi remnants I got at the stash swap and start on a felted draft dodger for the front door. I knew that the circulars I wanted to use were in my knitting basket, but it was kind of a tangled mess and I couldn't grab them immediately. I decided to clean out the basket - how bad could it be?
Hah.
I have now faced the full extent of my UFOs, and I am shamed. I present the following in archeological order, with the top layers first.
From the bottom: Red sweater for Squeakypants, blue socks that I'm knitting two at once to avoid second sock syndrome, Ribby Cardi that I stopped working on when I realized that pregancy wouldn't let me wear it for a while, mittens with pop-tops for my dad in a pretty green/purple mix I found at Fiber Loft, shawl that I wanted to make for the wedding in St. Thomas that I ended up not being able to go to because: pregnant, blood clot, dissertation.
...swatch that I was working on for a coat out of Red Pearl Uraguayan yarn, SnBN armwarmer plus yarn for the other, and one, two, THREE unfinished sets of socks, most of which haven't even made it to the one-sock stage (hence the need for two at once in the blue cotton yarn, above).

... AAAAAAND a yarmulke I was making for myself with the white tree of Gondor on it (I started it just before Two Towers came out, yes it has been that long, and a ball of mohair that I was making into a lace something or other, but I suck at lace. It looks like just a ball of yarn with an ugly cast-on row because when I pulled it out of the basket it started to frog itself, and since I know full well that mohair doesn't frog, I felt I had to finish the job before the yarn remembered itself and stopped letting me frog it.
...this doesn't even fit into my knitting basket.
Notice that starting on the very first layers of excavation, some of the projects don't even have needles on them anymore. This is because I took the needles out to work on something else. I also had at least three sets of yarn in the basket waiting to start up something new.
I was so proud of how well I de-stashed last week, but I now see that I have a more serious problem. I think I may have to institute a rule where I can only buy more yarn when I've finished a UFO.
Unless it's on a really good sale.
Or it's something I really really want.
Yeah.
At least I found the needles.

Little Bits

Nothing picture-worthy this week, but little things have happened which are good.

1. Found a pattern for a knitted frog closure, not that I used that pattern. But I like the pattern, so I want to keep it handy. I made one frog on the sweater, and cleared the pattern with some other knitters at...

2. Stashplosion. Boy, was that fun. I brought two big bags of yarn, and came home with one big bag that was at least half new (to me) yarn, slightly less than half yarn that I didn't get a chance to overdye, two hanks of my first attempts at handpainting, plus a seder plate. (Long story.) I managed to be very very good on the getting-rid-of-yarn front, even going so far as to push a pile of fingeringish weight wool on someone who didn't really want it. Probably ungracious of me, but I have admitted that I will NEVER knit anything of substance at that gauge, and she said she'd be able to give it away. Plus it really is very pretty yarn. Just, you know, a gauge problem. I also brought along my sister-in-law-the-younger (Hee. That makes her SILTY.), and got her started with a big bag of new stash from the other generous knitters there. She likes green: therefore it was determined that she get pretty much every green yarn there. Hee. I am a bad influence. But really she only deserved it, having made...

3. Baby's first DNA for Squeakypants. She even modified it at my FIL's suggestion so that the bases were two different sizes, which they are in real life. Lovely SILTY. Squeakypants will love it. Or else.

So it actually seems like I lied: I can see a couple things are actually picture-worthy. Unfortunately, I can't get up right now, as I am under a sleeping Squeakypants. We'll see if I update sometime this week, or if the pics of the DNA and handpaint go up next week. Or, knowing me, never.

Oh! I almost forgot! How cool is this?
Random stripes generator
I have about 12 balls of Classic Elite Tweed 03 that must have been demos from last year's Fiber Loft sale - all different colors. I almost brought it to stashsplosion, but didn't because I've been dreaming of a striped sweater. I am so glad I kept this yarn now, I can't even tell you. I may just sit around hitting refresh for an hour. Nothing else to do with sleeping Snorty on my belly, anyways... yee!

Like waiting in a really reaaaally long line...

...it's taken me a little longer to post than I expected. But in my defense, this is what I've accomplished:That's me immediately after my dissertation defense presentation, looking really tired and clinging to the Hub for support as if I were having trouble standing, which was probably true. I was in a daze, I don't really remember.

That's the extra-wombal Snert, who will now be referred to as Snort, or Snorty, or Squeakypants. Because he is. He's also very cute, and looks exactly like his dad, except with more hair. He's going to be 6 weeks old tomorrow.
Aaaaand...

This is his sweater. It is, of course, not finished, but it's damn close. All the ends are woven in, I learned crab stitch (and reverse crab stitch) for the button edges, the cuffs are sewn in, and everything. I'm just having a little trouble getting the i-cord right for the frog closures that I'm making. Once I get that, I block and I'm done. I'm hoping that means that I'll be done in time for him to get some nice long use out of it. I did make the cuffs pretty on the inside so they could be folded up or down as the arms grow...

Speaking of which, I decided to sew the cuffs before blocking. I'm not sure if I'll regret that, but I was afraid that they'd stretch oddly when wet, and then wrinkle up on repeated washing. Although maybe that's why you block in the first place? Like I said, I might regret that. I did enjoy figuring out crab stitch on this guy, and I liked fiddling with the color placement. In general I think I hate ripping out and reknitting too much to really wing it, pattern-wise, very often. But I do like the satisfaction of knowing that I designed it myself, and that I have, to at least an approximation, just what I want.
So. Anyone know a pattern for knit frog closures?

Hiatus

OK, no more posting for at least two weeks, and hopefully for a month. I'm trying to graduate, and that means writing my thesis has to take priority over everything else, including knitting, crafting, social gatherings, and possibly eating.

There are several tantalizing carrots at the end of this trial.
Sleep. A little time off before Snert emerges. The Hub has promised to buy all the gifts for the holidays. An end to this particular stress.
And, amazingly, yarn. The extra skein of red Svale came today, and it is the same dye lot as the rest of the Snert sweater. I am a very happy camper.

Now I just *have* to graduate.

In Which Zeebi Cannot Do Math

I have pretty much not knitted at all on the baby sweater since I got home from Atlanta. Thing is, I discovered while I was there that I am going to need some more red yarn for it. Not too bad, really, about two inches of a sleeve worth. I can get that from ripping out the collar and redoing it in grey instead of red. I could also rip out a little bit of the other sleeve and graft in the grey liner, then use the bit of red to make the left sleeve the same length. There are, in fact, several options.

But I'm tired of modifying this damn sweater. I've already ripped out the seed stitch bottom edging and put in a little line of grey on the liner. I've already reknit the collar several times. At the same time that my perfectionism is kicking in (because my kid WILL have the perfect sweater if it kills me), my laziness is waking up to say howdy.
I don't enjoy tinking, which is what I end up doing with this yarn, since there aren't a lot of stitches and the yarn is the tiniest bit fussy.
I don't like frogging because I screwed something up in the planning.
I hate the idea that I have to rip out because I miscalculated how much yarn I'd need by half a dozen yards.
I just don't wanna.

But.
At the same time, I just can't justify spending money on shipping to buy one skein. I can't really get out of the house to look around at LYSs because I'm horrifically busy, plus the Hub still won't let me walk around much. And how will I find the same dye lot again, anyway? Hence, the stalled knitting as I have pondered my dilemma.

Luckily, my grandma came to the rescue. She's knitting a blanket for Snert, and after hating the first yarn that she purchased for herself, she asked me to find another option. I ordered her some Plymouth Dreambaby DK, which is a lovely microfiber/nylon washable yarn that I've used before. I got the yarn for her online, and it was just what she wanted.
I didn't get enough yarn. (Do you sense a theme here?)

So now I have to order two more balls of yarn for my grandma. (I don't think I've ever seen Dreambaby in a store, which is weird since it's such a great yarn.) I'm paying shipping anyway. So I have ordered one more ball of the red Svale.

Dye lots be damned. The jacket's going to be covered with spitup within a week.
Now of course as soon as it comes in, I'm going to have to find time to knit. Which I don't really have.

Sigh. Maybe I should get another injury so I can spend more time convalescing and less time writing.
Yeah, right.

On the upside, my grandma made a beautiful blanket out of the hated yarn. Not machine washable, but beautiful.