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Have I mentioned that I just do NOT like knitting with cotton? Well, I’m barely into my summer knitting and I’m already sick of it. It slides all over, and the Cotton Twist I’m using keeps splitting it’s twist right off. I want to get into some wool, but it hit 80 yesterday, and I need my summer wears done. Plus, I love the feel of the fabric as it is knit up, so I just stick with it.

80 degrees is also the signal that it’s time to wash all my wool knits and pack them away. Trouble is I now have a huge pile of scarves and hats in my closet that need hand washing. I suck as getting anything hand washable done; the items usually sit on my closet floor for weeks, sometimes even months. I have seriously been planning on getting to them, but Little Man has decided that 2 year olds really shouldn’t be tired until about 10pm, which is also my cut off point for work. Whatever hasn’t been done can wait until tomorrow; its my BBC/knitting time. But with the later bedtime (and believe me, we’ve been trying to get him to sleep earlier!) I’m not getting much else done around the house. So I choose to knit with pain in the butt cotton and wartch the adventures of Hyacinth and Thermo-man and pray that the moths haven’t found my closet floor yet!

I am starting to have WAY too many projects either on the needles or in line, and buying way too much yarn (if that’s even possible!) Between visiting a new Yarn shop last weekend, a sale at a LYS, and a trip to another new yarn store this weekend, I am even getting overwhelmed. So here I go trying to sort it all out:

OTN:
LM’s vest, from Debbie Bliss’s Baby Knits book
Slip stitch socks, Knitpicks Sock Garden
LM’s socks, Elann “Sock it To Me”
Baby garter stitch sweater from Interweave summer 2005
Color By Color Scarf
Weekend Warrior
Barbar Walker Learn to Knit Afghan
Tube top/skirt from SnB Nation in Berroco Cotton Twist, light blue
Top down Raglan from Ann Budd’s Sweater Book in Knitpicks, Wool of the Andes

In line:
Anouk from Knitty
Two baby hats
Baby Booties (Suss Cousins newest book)
A Booga or Sophie Bag in Noro Kuyeron for a friend
X Back Tank top from Knitty, Summer 2005
Knitting Bag from Knitter’s Stash
about four scarves and five pairs of socks
and numerous things I can’t even remember right now……

You can see the problem here. I’m thinking maybe it’s time to get some sort of project wish list going so I can figure out where I’m headed. Ever since I finished Clapotis I’ve just been randomly knitting a bit here and there. Time to hunker down and get some things finished up!!

I finished my Clapotis!!! All it needs now is some serious blocking and I’m finished. I can’t even begin to say how relieved I am to have finished this project. Its funny how I really loved knitting it, but hated how it just dragged on forever, and ever, and ever. But I’m very proud of myself for sticking with it and getting it done quickly.

I also made the Henry Rollins doll, for my brother to give to his friend for a baby shower present. I’ll have a picture soon. His friend is a huge Rollins fan, so what better toy, huh? My brother cracks me up sometimes! His friend really liked it. It was my first attempt at a doll, and aside from giving Henry a bad hairdo he turned out pretty good.

So what’s next?

-My next pair of socks, in Marigold from Knitpicks.

-“Anouk” from Knitty (for my brand new niece!!!:-)

-Two other random baby hats that I need to get done in the next couple weeks. Not sure what I’ll make yet.

I have a few other projects in mind, but these are at the top of the list, in addition to Little Man’s vest that I need to finish so I can get his two year old pictures taken. I seriously need to get busy on that one, or he’ll be three by the time I get it done.

Once a month, I have a group at church that gets together to knit. Usually, this is a nice, relaxing night for me that I look forward to. Last night was different. DH had to work late, so the Little Man came with me to knitting, which really meant, no knitting for me. He is a very, and I mean VERY busy two year old who was also in a tired mood last night, and then the poor litle guy gets dragged to a knitting group by me. I should have known that it would be a miracle if I managed to knit even 2 rows with him with me (which I did) but the rest of the evening was spent following him around the hallways, reminding him that the trash can is not a toy, and trying to convince him that it is just not nice to throw our sippy cups at our fellow knitters. Amongst all that, I consider 2 rows on a prayer shawl quite an accomplishment, don’t you?

After bedtime, I tried so hard to stay up so I could drop the next stitch on my Clapotis. Didn’t make it; four rows and I was falling asleep. So I’m betting myself, can I finish it this weekend? We’ll see!

I started Clapotis about a month ago now. I chose the Butone yarn in Fiesta from Handpainted yarn.com and it is knitting up to be just lovely. The problem? I had put it off because it seemed like a bunch of work with all the markers. But once I jumped in an did it, it was actually pretty easy. So easy, in fact that I naively thought, “I’ll be done with this in no time!” Ha! It just keeps going, going, going.

The worst is I haven’t really been working on much else than this scarf. My poor weekend sweater is just sitting there, waiting to be sewn together. Little Man’s cute new vest…sitting there. My socks…sitting there. Don’t even ask about the Color By Color scarf or my Barbara Walker afghan. They are at the bottom of the closet. My question is, how on earth do all those Clapotis knitters have time to get so many done? Some people on that knit along have done two, three, four of them!

This weekend, Clapotis, your finished, got it ?! !!

My goal this next week is to figure out how to add a sidebar of my actually projects, so I can keep actual notes (go figure) of my projects. I have started too many to count since I last was online, but I also finished some things!

Most exciting, I finally sewed up Zeeby’s Bag from SnB, and I felted it. I also finished up my Weekend Warrior form Yarn Girls in the Point 5 I scored at %40.(with the exception of sewing it up) Of course, the deal was that to buy it I was not going to buy any yarn for 2 months! That lasted unitl last weekend when I got birthday money, but hey, free money doesn’t count, right?

I also started a Clapotis in Fiesta Boutone from handpaintedyarn.com, my new favorite place to get yarn. I LOVE them, but this darn scarf is taking FOREVER.

Also started a second pair of socks in Zinnia Sock Garden form Knitpicks, so far I’m really liking the way it knits up.

Finally, I started the vest in the Debbie Bliss Baby knits book for the little man. Can’t remember the name of the cotton (Luz?) but I’m doing it in light and dark green, gold and blue stripes. Very cute.

My pics will be back this weekend. I will be relieved to finally post them. A knitting blog is jsut lame w/ no pics.
If anyone reads this and knows how to put up that sidebar, let me know! 🙂

Okay, so I TOLD myself if I was going to blog I would try to post at least every other day. A month later, here I am again. So where am I?

I had hoped to be flying through my Color on Color scarf by now. However, on the way to the baby shower, DH lost his scarf at a truck stop. Lost it. The scarf I had slaved over because I was too new of a knitter to reallize that making a scarf out of fingering weight yarn would take forever and was probably a bad idea. So did I say “get thee to the Gap, no more nice scarves for irresponsible people like you!” Sigh..I wanted to, but he felt so bad about losing it that I went out and got three skeins of Cascade to make him a new one. I finished it up last night, yay! Now on to my other distraction…..

The ultimate splurge: a sweater in Colinette Point Five. I have been dying for this yarn, but at 23.00 a hank, it wasn’t going to happen. Until I saw it for 40% off at my LYS. However, I had to swear I would buy no more yarn for 2 months to buy it. However, I got the front half of a sweater done, and it is NEARLY worth it!

Well, I was up until one last night, but I maganed to complete two items yesterday:

First one was the lace ribbon scarf from The Little Box of Scarves. It turned out a bit short, but hey, the color is beautiful even if my cast on is, as usual, too tight, which causes the scarf ot roll in on itself a bit. But not enough to do it over…I”m happy.

Next was the baby hat for my SIL’s baby shower. Once I got used to the cotton, I actually enjoyed knitting with it and it turned out fairly even, except for where I joined it in the round. Somehow I ended up with an extra big loop which I patched up when I sewed in the tail. Rather than making the I-cord (since it was already 12:30) I crocheted the cotton along with some leftover ribbon from my scarf and tied that around the head; quick and cute! (and done) Now the only other “finishing” I have to do is go back and remove all the black hairs from my cat Arthur, who (despite being poked in the back quite often w/ my double points) insists on sitting on my lap as I knit. Usually no problem, but for some reason the 1824 cotton is a cat-hair magnet, so I need to de-cat it before wrapping. Maybe this is how eyelash yarn was invented?

Big goal tonight: finish one more baby sock (which I started about 8 rows of ribbing last night) and wrap up all these little chocolate favors for the shower tomorrow. I doubt we’ll get to MIL’s until 9 tonight, so it will be another late night for me…

I picked up a camera last night. No, not a real digital one yet, just a disposable for now, but at least it will get me started until we decide what kind of brand to get. Anyone have a preference? Our big hang up is that since we have a toddler, the trouble w/ most digitals is that you have that little pause before you take a shot. Which means that we miss a lot of good shots. Now, some have the “burst shot” which sounds like that problem is eliminated a bit, but we still need to do some looking around before we buy.

I still didn’t get done with the hat for SIL’s baby shower this weekend, and I still have one sock to go. I was down to about ten more rows when LIttle Man woke up. He seems to know when I’m just about done knitting for the night, and then wakes up ten minutes before I’m done – and Daddy just won’t do. So off to bed I went. So for the hat, maybe tonight!

I saw the Color by Color scarf at one of my fave yarn shops last night, wow, was it beautiful! It was also gratifying to see that I am on the right track with the first ten sections. The fair isle section is a bit intimidating, so it was good to be able to see it all put together. The scarf was’t as big as I thought it would be. They were pretty busy, so I didn’t ge the chance ot ask about guage or needle size (which has been a big problem for a lot of knitters with this scarf). I ended up knitting it on 6’s. I’ll be interested to see how it compares.

Okay, so this blog is getting started at an incredibly slow pace. I got my name up, right? Listed a few projects, and then……I’m asking myself how a working mama of a toddler who can barely find time to knit can also find time for a blog, but, I see all the beautiful pictures of everyone’s work and think, I want to share!!!! I want a stash list! I want those little ___ % complete signs! So we’ll se how long it takes me to get to that point.

Main problem and hold up number one is, NO DIGITAL CAMERA! This is a major debatable point in our house right now. I had a cheapo35mm, that my little man took over for himself (it took crappy pictures anyway). Then DH has a So Fancy I Can Barely Work It 35mm, that has a mysterious aliment that prevents us from taking any pictures. My point, let’s just get a digital camera! His point, like with any new technology, is that he is sure that as soon as we buy one, some sort of new model camera will come out that is way better than ours, and we’ll be stuck with thie old one. He insists if we just wait a little longer…..Personally, I’m ready to go buy one tomorrow, but we’ve got to compromise sometimes, right:-) I give it about another month. In the meantime, if going to pick up one of those little disposable/digital print cameras so I can show off my work. So soon, folks, pics will be up soon!

WIP: I’ve been sidelined by a baby shower. So add some tiny baby socks and the Cotton Hat from “Last minute Knitted Gifts” to my line-up. This should be a quick project, right? Well, the fist sock turned out too big and in a color combination that I know my SIL would not like. So I started again and got one more sock in green and white finished. I took a break and moved on to the hat, in 1824 cotton, off white. I have had to recast on about FIVE TIMES already. I just can not get used to this yarn. It’s so soft but I’m finding it very uncooperative and my stiches are very uneven.

So, I was frustrated and cast on the lacy scarf from “The little Box of Scarves” in a beautiful lavendar ribbon from Knit one Crochet One along with Crystal Palace kid merino in white. I got halfway done last night and would have stayed up tp finish, but Little Man woke up and needed some mama time, so to bed I went. Such is the life of a knitting mama! 🙂