Yellow scarf finished !

This weekend the parental unit was in town, and i took the chance to finish the scarf i was working on and giving it to my parents as a present. It was a very simple pattern but it was finished and after blocking it was 64 inches long. I used 4 skeins of yarn and have one left for a future project.

This was the basic pattern I used:

Multiples of 10

Row 1: p4,k1,p4,k4

Row 2: p3,k2,p2,k2

Row 3: p2,k2,p1,k1,p2,k2

Row 4: p1,k2,p2,k2,p2,k1

Row 5: k2,p3,k3,p2

Row 6: k1,p4,k4, p1

I casted 40 stitches, and used needles number 9.

Here are some pics:

The Return of the Knitter

Well, hello !! Any one there ??? Yes it is me, I am back kind-a-sorta. After 2 years of traveling to California and now 6 months of working from home, I am going a little crazy. Yes the kind of crazy that happens when you wake up at 6:15 for a meeting at 6:30 and then you stay all day at home working remotely and talking to people over the phone , but lacking total human contact for hours on end. So in this 2.5 years i have read a lot of books - thank you air travel for allowing me to read a book a week - but I stopped doing anything crafty, like at all. About two months ago I started knitting again, and I feel like i want to share the results with you.

I was working on this two sided cable scarf, but I was making a lot of mistakes and after some frustrating time I ripped it out and started a new with a simpler pattern, this is all a result of two very good friends who have started a knitting circle with yours truly and that was the kick in the pants I needed to get back on to the fiber arts, and I have made tons of progress.

Here is a look:

This is more detailed look:

The scarf is getting there, I need to do another feet or so, for it to be long enough for me to like and feel comfortable giving as a present. Who will it be presented to you ask, well my mother of course, since she has not received any scarfs as of yet. Next on my list, my mother in law !

Socks Part Deux

Last week I started my second sock knitting class, I know, I know, you can all laugh. The Crafty one and I have decided to make socks our crusade, we think we have dominated the scarf - I am still working on one btw - but we think that socks are easier and faster to make. So far she has finished one pair, I have finished none, and we are on our second class mind you. But the theory is there to back us up, they are smaller projects and they are more interesting than a scarf, but the problem is finding the right teacher. Last time around we went to one store (said store will remain nameless, for our knitting future sake) and we just did not like the teacher, she was just one of those teachers that just can not explain, she rushes through things and we spent 3 days struggling. The solution was simple, find another place, and we did, but it took time before we both had time to do it, and so it is not until the summer that we did it. I started the class last week, and I loved the store, and the best part is the teacher is a teacher, in real life and in her knitting life, so I I think we have a winner, and just because of that I am going to regale you with the following pictures:

Yarn



Cuff in Process



Finished Cuff:



The store gave me this cheapo yarn, to experiment and try it out. This is the third time I did the cuff, and I should have ribbed it, but I just wanted it done yesterday, I needed to mop and vacum. More updates later this week !!

Falling off the Wagon

Getting off the wagon is soo easy. For the last 3 days, I have not seen either the inside of the gym or the pool, and as guilty as I feel about this, I am still alive and quite well. I mean, yes I know I am not the fittest person in the world, but I try, and I do exercise regularly. Anyhow, maybe the Argentine's plan is working better than we expected.

Today tho, I am going to attempt to do spinning at 12:15 and then go swimming in the evening before project runway. We shall see if that is possible, because I need to finish a sock I have been "working on" for 3 weeks now and there has not been too much progress. Yep, I am sorry to report, not a lot of progress has been made. The class is tomorrow, and we are supposed to start the heal - we have already done the toe - so I might have to skip swimming ans stay home and knit.

Now that is quite the conundrum, and a very appropriate one for this blog.

Knitting again

Ok, so last week I forgot to blog about my new knitting class. Yes I know, see the word Knitting on the title this blog is more than just something witty I came up with. I do knit, I am a very bad knitter, and because of my ADD tend to jump from one unfinished project to the next, but this year as my TV habits have changed I have decided to give knitting another try. It is soothing, but it is hard work and it requires concentration, something I am not very good at. Anyway, so I picked up some old projects mostly a big read scarf, that was coming along until I accidentally broke a needle. But even before said incident, I had enrolled in a knitting class, i felt that I had teach myself as much as I could on my own and that it was time to go to a professional. So for once sticking to my goals, i signed up for a sock knitting class, and started last week, so far I have only knitted a partial toe, but I am getting there, today there should be more progress and then next class we are supposed to learn how to finish the sock. On the one hand I am very excited, but on the other I am terrified, it was much harder than I thought, and the other students tend to be better than I am. Ohh well one of my consolations is that I dragged the Crafty one (who has a blog, it is linked in the dahlings section) and she is coming to the class with me.

Knitting Lessons

Today the knitting part of this blog re-emerges because on of my coworkers who is about to go on pregnancy leave – I am sure that is not the name, but I can not think of the technical one right now – asked me to teach her how to knit. Her objective like mine is to pass the time, not to make an afghan or even a scarf, but like the GCC says it is about the process not the product. I agree whole heartedly, being one of those who can not sit still for more than 10 minutes, I understand her completely. If I had to be locked up in a house with an infant, I would go nuts.

Today at lunch time, we are going to get her some yarn, and I will teach her how to knit. At first I thought I would give her yarn, but then thought that she should choose it, not that the first ball of it will be useful or anything, but she needs to choose it in a color she likes. Of course this gives me the opportunity to get more yarn. Been thinking I have too many dark colors, I need something lighter, in a yellow or an orange, or a light blue for a blanket I have been meaning to finish sometime in 2010. I digress, then it will be time to teach the purl and the knit, and let her practice. I guess this officially makes me one of the gayest people I know. Oh well …