I m way behind on FO pictures, as well as WIPs. Today will be for FO s.
I just finished up with updating my gallery for 2005.
I knit and crocheted 56 items last year. 
Very cool. Anyway, I owe you a picture from way back, January of 2005.
I crocheted slippers for my sister for Christmas (hers was the first gift I completed), but couldn t post pictures because my sister absolutely can not be trusted to not click on a link that says Michele, don t click here.
Anyway, here they are:
I also finished up the Faroese Shawlet on December 23, but completely neglected to either block it or post a picture. Here s an unblocked picture:
I am happy to report it is drying on my blocking board as I type this.
I m going to sneak in some non-knitting stuff here on Friday, after we went to the cross-stitch store, we had a nice lunch at Karl Strauss, then shopping at the Carlsbad Outlet stores. Lots of fun, and I got Nine West boots that look a lot like in chocolate brown (I couldn t find the actual pic online). They were only $20!
!! Super deal.
I also picked up these cute Sketchers:
Love them.
Anyway, back to knitting. I finished Fitzgerald a really long time ago and never posted about it.
Pattern: Fitzgerald, Noro Knits and Ann Budd s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns (modified drop-shoulder)
Yarn: Araucania Nature Wool in 16, six skeins
Modifications: Added length - Brad is tall!
Time: 10.25 hours for the back, 8.
75 for the front, 6.25 for the first sleeve, 6 for the second sleeve, 2 for the collar, and 3.75 for the finishing, for a total of 37 hours.
I also whipped out a Dulaan hat - I bought an extra skein of Rob s hat yarn so I could use it for a kid s hat. I literally cast on right before seeing Brokeback Mountain (an excellent movie, I highly recommend it - I cried a lot, so bring some tissues). I had to stop in the movie because I got to the decreases way too quickly, and I didn t want to do those by feel.
I appear to be picking up knitting speed - this exact same hat, same yarn (in charcoal), also knit in a movie theater (watching Hitch) took 2.25 hours, and this one only 1.75 hours.
This is my final FO of 2005.
I didn t realize that today was a holiday for most business except for mine, so I belatedly decided to take a floating holiday today. Since my vacation started a day late due to work I had to get done, this returns me back to the 10 days of no work (for the price of four vacation/floating holiday days).
I m totally not ready to go back to work tomorrow - it seems like I didn t get nearly enough done at home! It was really nice to be able to just hang out with Brad, no homework to do. 
I m also going to miss this face:
I m thankful for the fresh baked peanut butter scones with ooey gooey chocolate centers that I baked this morning in the kitchen of the home I m lucky enough to share with my wonderful husband.
ETA: The scone recipe is from , Chocolate Peanut Butter.
I m thankful for my wonderful family and friends, and the fact that I m lucky enough not to have to worry about where I m going to sleep, how I m going to eat, or who to count on when I need support.
dc:title="One sleeve down, one to go" Not that they re a bad thing, but I m fresh out.
Thanks so much for all of your kind comments on all of them! I have four things crossed of the 10 WIP list, and have made good progress on October goals, so far.
I ripped out collar.
While it s cute standing up on the model, wearing it like that for one day (back in April) made me wish it were a little longer so I could . I had originally shortened it to make it a better length for standing up. I lengthened it this weekend, and did a tubular bind-off instead of the basic chain bind-off I had done before.
It s not perfect, but looks better.
I decided to go ahead and do Fitzgerald s collar, while I was in that collar mood (at least I can do the actual knitting of ribbing while reading, if not the picking up of stitches and binding off). Brad liked it an inch shorter than the pattern indicates.
The tubular cast off looked better with the smoother Araucania Nature Wool (instead of Noro Silk Garden), but I had to kind of stretch it out so it would lie flat, making it look a little messier.
I also blocked Butterfly s collar again, this time aiming for an arc shape. It still doesn t lie flat on its own, so I m going to cheat and tack down a couple of the points in the back.
Of course, unless it gets cooler fast in (link is for the weather) I won t be wearing either Butterfly or York.
To keep with the WIP management plan, I ve decided not to cast on for the next multi-directional scarf until Branching Out is finished. They use the same needles, and while I could use my Denise needles for the MD scarf, or even 40 Prime; long Addi Turbos that I have, it makes more sense to just finish BO first.
I thought I was going to be making a color choice, but after pulling out both the Noro Silk Garden in 201 and Noro Kureyon in 51, I realized that the Kureyon is much more guy friendly. In a convenient bit of luck, this year in the M family gift exchange, we drew the very same married couple that I was making things for anyway, one of them being this scarf. I m also going to hold off on starting on River until the back of Grace is completed.
By holding off on starting on two deadline pieces until non-deadline pieces are completed, I m either motivating myself well, or shooting myself in the foot. Time will tell. Especially since the MD scarf is now due on Thanksgiving instead of Christmas (they do the M family gift exchange early.
) Exactly seven days until I leave on vacation.
dc:title="Okay, I m done with the FO storm" came over last night ( had a last minute conflict). After dinner, I did some more blocking.
It s amazing how much fun blocking is when you don t want to be knitting the thrummed slippers. Anyway, I soaked the front and back of Fitzgerald with Here and There Cables in Eucalan, and then laid them out. Fitzgerald wanted to grow, badly.
My swatch (yes, I swatched) did not grow at all, so I was surprised. I pinned Fitzgerald out to the right measurements, though I ll definitely be seaming the shoulders and basting the sides so Brad can try it on before I start the sleeves.
Here and There Cables is just too long to get in the shot, but here s a partial:
The cables look really pretty spread out a little, which is really hard to see in this photo.
I did in fact work on the thrummed slippers, when all of the blocking was done. I m really bummed about having to knit a second one after the first one is finished. If a party invitation comes your way that has the words logistical nightmare in the title, don t go.
John s lucky I like him most of the time. Any party that requires the identification of poison oak, sliding around in rocks, and napkin hoarding among the women can t be a good thing.
Edited to add: Miyon wrote up the party much better than I could have - check it out .
Keep in mind that I m still the same old Kris and stayed the heck away from everything to do with feet.
After the logistical nightmare, I had to work. Fun for me.
I do have a picture, however - the front of Fitzgerald is finished. I finished it Saturday evening while reading a chapter for my grad class. The neck is curling badly in the picture, but you get the general idea:
Half of a skein of the Araucania Nature wool (there was a knot about halfway through) was just horrible.
Every two rows or so, I d come upon a section that had a ply or two broken. ANW doesn t split splice well, at least not for me. So after having to tink back to the beginning of the row to cut out the bad part and rejoin a couple of times, I finally ripped back to where the problems first began and started over with a fresh skein.
If I end up with extra yarn, which I m pretty sure I will, I ll just toss it. This problem robbed me of movie theater knitting on Friday, though. 
Thanks for all of the wonderful comments on Rosita.
asked what s next? Well, the answer is simpler things. I spent Friday swatching for Birch, , and .
Madeleine is still in the works, though I put it aside to cast on for , and then in a moment of weakness, Soleil as well.
Yesterday, I had a work function at Del Mar Fairgrounds. I have to admit that I have some moral opposition to horse races (though I m much more passionate about irresponsible dog breeders and pet stores).
It was still fun, though, and the horses are just beautiful. Pure, solid muscle. Brad was taking his last final while I was at the picnic, so Sam went with me instead.
He did place some bets, and was actually pretty successful, especially for a guy that picks horses based on their names. Brad and I got home about the same time and decided to use the movie tickets that my sister thoughtfully sent us and went to see Wedding Crashers. Hilarious movie.
Anyway, stupid me thought that the air conditioning in the theater would be a welcome change from the heat, but they had seriously under conditioned for the almost full theater. I was knitting Fitzgerald (by feel) and had to eventually put it away because I got too warm. Oh well.
I m knitting this in lime green Adrienne Vittadini Marissa, a pima cotton/silk blend.
This sweater isn t actually so much Fitzgerald as it is a modified drop shoulder sweater from , since my 5 spi gauge with Araucania Nature Wool doesn t match the 4.5 spi that Fitzgerald calls for.
Also, I m going with 5 Prime; of ease instead of 10 Prime;, thanks to some help from and Andrew. (I was thinking 7 Prime;, she said 6 Prime; looked just a little big on Andrew, so I m going with 5 Prime;.) I ll follow the instructions for the Fitzgerald collar, otherwise I ll be following Ann Budd s book.
I ll credit them both when I do my final project run down (months from now). I used the tubular cast on for this (the same one I tried and scrapped for Madeleine, but had successfully used for York). With worsted weight wool, this cast on is fabulous, DK weight wool cotton, not so much.
Birch is going on the needles as soon as I buy Addi Naturas in a US 6 (I wanted to yesterday, but didn t leave Del Mar early enough to run up to Encinitas). Or, until I decide to knit it on the 14 Prime; Brittany straights that I have. I guess we ll see which comes first.
I ve got a little post-monogamy project explosion going on over here.
dc:title="Big day today!
News RSS