Saturday Fun with Friends

On Saturday, my friend K picked me up for knitting, about an hour earlier than I expected. My DH and I had just returned from a walk, so she was lucky that I was home, but this also meant that I was ready to go. We picked up another friend and headed off to Village Yarn and Tea. We had a lovely few hours knitting and talking and then realized we were all hungry, so we headed off to the Mongolian Grill, a restaurant near my house. There we had a plate of fresh, lightly stir fried vegetables and our choice of protein (beef, chicken, tofu, etc.) We sat there for almost an hour and a half and then I needed to get home so that I could leave again. I had been invited to another friend’s house for dinner. DH was playing in a softball tournament, so I went alone.
The evening was filled with good food and interesting conversation. Also invited were our church’s missionaries that have been living in Central Asia and are home to gather more support and then will be moving on to Austria to work with the same people groups, but these will be refugees. Listening to them talk about their experiences was fascinating. The couple comprises of an American man and his Austrian wife. With my love for accents, I particularly enjoyed listening to her talk. She also brought a little different viewpoint on each subject, being from Europe rather than the US. We talked of governments, learning new languages, and told many personal stories and the occasional joke.

Knitting During Work Hours!

Thursday was an awesome day! I woke with a migraine (alright not so great) and took a full dose of Excedrin Migraine to ease the pain so that I could work. The caffeine always gives me a bit of an adrenaline high for the day, so I was rushing through everything that I was doing. I sped through many of my tasks at work and then had a meeting from 10-11:30. I always love meetings at work, as long as I’m not presenting, as I can knit! I worked on Whisper and nearly finished the second sleeve. Forgetting that I had another meeting in the afternoon, I spent my lunch working to finish the sleeve and did! As I was binding off the last stitch, the coworker I was eating with said, “It’s a good thing that you went to lunch early. Remember we have a meeting this afternoon.” At first, I thought that I might not have anything else simple to work on, but found my teal, cotton pullover in the bottom of my bag! Whew…Disaster averted! (I get very bored in most meetings and have difficult time concentrating and not fidgeting when my hands aren’t busy.) So, that afternoon, I had another 2 hours to spend knitting. I finished half of the last few armhole decreases and am only an hour or two away from splitting the sleeves from the body of the sweater. I reached this point a little over a week ago, but then realized that I had knit the armhole too long and ripped it back so that it would fit better. I usually find it difficult to regain momentum on a project after a problem like this and the meeting was perfect for this.
After arriving home from work, I picked up Whisper, again. I pulled out my circular needle and wound the 2nd ball of yarn. Then, I sat down to pick up stitches. I didn’t count how many, but it is a ton! Luckily, I had this week’s episodes of NCIS and CSI: NY to watch, so the time went rather quickly. I even knit a couple of rows!

Cables and Os Progress

I have been diligently working on my Cables & Os Cardigan from No Sheep for You. It is growing! I have completed around 15 percent more of the project, which is almost doubling the progress I had from last year! I started it last May, and worked for a couple of weeks on it. When it did not seem to be growing fast enough and my wrist was starting to hurt, I moved on to something easier. This is a cotton/linen yarn knitted at a rather tight gauge, so it does bother me some if I forget to stretch. I was noticing that it was bothering me a little last night, so I started taking a few more stretch breaks and that enabled me to continue working until I needed another skein of yarn. I forgot to put one in my bag before leaving the house, so I stopped at that point.
Yesterday, I was working on it at a staff meeting and had several people comment on how nice it looks! (I keep eye contact with the speaker most of the time, so no one has ever said that I shouldn’t be knitting at these events. There are around 70 of us at these things and there is only 1 person speaking at a time, so no employee participation, other than listening, is expected.) In that hour, I finished almost one pattern repeat, of 8 rows on 374 stitches. That felt really good and I was quite impressed with myself.
After work, I went to my women’s group at church. During the discussions, I often knit, too. While there, for 2 hours, I finished another repeat. When I am talking, I sometimes stop knitting because I am concentrating on getting the right words so that I am understandable, so I get less done that when I only need to listen.

Project Updates

I've been knitting away on the Elegance sock, but on Monday, realized that it was huge!! When calculating the increased size, I added twice the stitches that I meant to, not thinking about the fact that when you add 9 stitches to the top of the foot, it adds 9 stitches to the bottom, as well!! They looked big enough for a small elephant. So...rrrriiiipppp! I spent 15 minutes of lunch time on Monday ripping it out and rewinding the yarn into a center pull ball. Then, I spent the last 30 minutes of my lunch finishing the toe. Fortunately, I'm using the "Magic Cast On," which does not require a length of waste yarn. When I started over, I began knitting the pattern as written. It is coming along nicely and I almost have the length back to what it looked like when last I posted!
For this sock, I've been using the Magic Loop method, rather than my standard dpns. I have 2 friends that I've been meeting to knit with on Saturday afternoons that are asking to learn how to knit socks. Neither wants to tackle the "using tiny dpns" thing, so I offered to show them the Magic Loop method. So that I will be ready to teach the method, I thought I ought to practice it. In other knitting group news, we have a new person joining us this Saturday. She has never learned to knit and is going to pick up needles for the first time this weekend! I love teaching, and am looking forward to it.
Lastly, I've added one more WIP to the long, long list. I started knitting a hat for a gift that will be a ski mask, like the helmet liners that knitters are knitting for the troops. I had a special request for it. I started it last night and have it about 1/3 done. I've been having such a great time checking names off the list. When I have finished an item, I wash it, block it, fold some tissue paper into and wrap the gift. I finish by using a sticky note with the receiver's name on it and placing it in storage. This way, I'll only have to pull out the wrapped gifts and add a ribbon and a card! I am hoping to be ultra prepared this year so that I won't have to spend long hours wrapping, etc. Only time will tell whether or not I can keep this up, but I really hope so!

Knit...Knit...Knit...

I've been knitting quite a lot, lately, but have no pictures to show for it! On Sunday, I started knitting a sweater for a coworker's upcoming baby shower. I wanted something that would be machine washable, so I'm using the softest yellow, acrylic that I could find at Michael's. (Usually, I hate acrylics, but there are some good uses for them!) I have it almost done, but need to finish the last sleeve. When I was tired of knitting on it, I stopped and sewed as much together as possible. I even knit on the button & button hole bands and finished the collar. It has been a quick knit, which is a great way to take a break from some of my other projects.

In other knitting, I have the second Huskies sock almost done...Maybe tonight, or tomorrow. As I wanted to give them to him before Easter, I'm right on track. Phew, what a relief!

My shawl hasn't come very far since I last posted a picture. Its getting up there in the stitch count, so its starting to take a while to finish a row. I still love it, but there are only certain times that it can be worked on. Green Gable has been getting some work put in, as well, but I am still not down to the bottom of the armhole, yet. This is the project that seems to really be taking way, way too long.

I have so many projects I'd love to start, right now, but am making myself finish at least some (maybe 2? :) ) projects before I allow myself to do that! Finishing the project always feels so good, but I often feel like I have to drag myself through the last eighth, or so, of the item.

Oh, I almost forgot! I now have 2 friends at work that are meeting with me on Thursdays to knit! It has been so much fun to work with them. My one coworker said that she wanted to learn, and she has ended up showing me a new way to cast on. Both are working on their own at home, and doing a great job.

Huskies Sock

Since beginning the Huskies sock on the 4th, I've knit the toe and most of the foot. Only one more inch to go, before starting the heel. I'm looking forward to the stitch being a little different as I work a short-row heel. I am doing the entire sock in stockinette, which gets a little boring after a while. However, it makes for great commuter knitting, since I can either look out the window (and knit by touch) or watch what I'm knitting, taking time to admire the way the colors are pooling. It has been a fun knit and is going a little more quickly than I thought that it might. The sock will be about 10 inches in diameter and about 11 inches in length. I split the yarn into 2 equally weighted balls so that I can just knit until I run out of yarn on the cuff. I'm hoping I have enough yarn to make it as long as the foot, but doubt that. Instead, I'll make it as long as possible by not using a hem for the cuff and using ribbing, instead.