a quickie...

... since I'm supposed to be working...

Here's my progress on I Do. It's all poofy right now but it should block out nicely. It's on my desk at work, which is a lovely bluegreen seaglass type glass. It's probably part of my inspiration for my wedding colors. You can't really see the color changes but it's making subtle changes from green to blue.



And a new Easter tradition? I love this! Easter Turducken

Wedding knitting

I'm crazy, I know, but I'm planning to knit for all my bridesmaids, plus myself. When I started I had 5 months and 5 projects. I'm now about 40% done on 2 different projects, so I'm on pace if I can JUST KEEP KNITTING. :)

I Do is coming along nicely. I'm done with one sleeve and am starting the back on the first side. This project is made in 2 pieces and is grafted together in the back. This is my public knitting. so if you see me knitting around town, this is most likely what I'm working on.

The first Mariposa shawl is also knitting right up. The lace pattern is much easier than it looks (I think I just get freaked out by lace charts) and since it's worked from the bottom up, each section is smaller than the last. I'm on the 3rd out of 4 repeats, and then need to pick up stitches on the edges for the ties. I'm using Tess sock yarn in the same colorway as the I Do (light blue fades to light green), and am about to start my second skein. I think I'm going to have PLENTY of sock yarn for 4 shawls. I should also do something for my flower girl - maybe one of the Tie One On's from Knitty? I need a nice wrap pattern for an 8 year old that I can do in leftover sock yarn. I prefer one with a rounded back rather than a pointy back.

If I get behind I have had several offers of help, which are much appreciated!

Speaking of public knitting, I've been trying to get to Full Thread Ahead on the occasional Monday night, but haven't made it on a regular basis. This week's knitting was canceled as Hollis' father-in-law passed away over the weekend. :( I don't know if anyone still goes to the Prolific Oven on Tuesdays, it kind of died after Shannon moved. Miss you! I've started to go to Boba Knit on Thursdays in Mountain View - new crowd and familiar faces all together, but it's awfully dark in the store. Hopefully with the end of the rain the lighting will be better.

In other knitting news (I sound like Rhonda Bell of Knitting News Cast in my head), I have been downloading podcast after podcast, and have quite a library of knitting related 'casts on my MP3 player and waiting on my laptop. I don't have any actual music on my MP3 player, just podcasts of various types (knitting, wedding, tech, news, and workouts). I'm really enjoying listening to them. I'll work on listing them on my sidebar - which is really out of date. Downloading them is really easy - I use a free software called Juice (formerly iPodder) - it works like Bloglines for podcasts. It tracks the RSS feeds and automatically downloads any new podcasts. My MP3 player looks like a drive on my laptop, so I can drag files across to easily download them. I wish there was an auto-download function, but this way I can pick and choose which podcasts have priority.

I spent Easter Sunday with my future sister-in-law and her family, and took some pictures of my nephews in the Brother Rugby sweaters I was making last year. They're still HUGE on the boys, so they should last a good long time. At one point Aidan, the little one, put his arm thru the neckhole and was wearing it like a toga. So cute!

I'll be working the FTA booth at the Knit and Crochet Guild show in Oakland on Saturday with Hollis and Lu, and will be at Vickie Howell's book signing at FTA tomorrow night. JUST KEEP KNITTING!

I am a total geek

27.41617% - Total Geek

Another FO

Finally finished my co-worker's cabled fingerless mittens over the weekend. The last pair I made only took me about 2 weeks, but they were out of DK weight. My co-worker really wanted Cherry Tree Hill's African Gray colorway, which Hollis only had in sock weight, so I recalculated the pattern for the new yarn, and these took me almost twice as long to finish. I was so sick of them by the time I was almost done, but she's very excited about getting them so I know they'll have a long time of good use.

Now I really need to get going on my wedding knitting! 1 shrug for me, and 4 wraps for the bridesmaids. I have 5 months, no worries, right?

WIP March 2006

Here's the pics of the WIPs in my sidebar that have actually been started:

I Do

Lu's Lacy Scarf

Ribbed Cable Fingerless Gloves (for me)

Ribbed Cable Fingerless Gloves (for co-worker)

Felted Easter Basket (teaching project for FTA)

Whenever Sock Swap Sock #2 (I don't know if this counts, since the pair of socks are half-done, but I haven't started mine at all yet.)

Cookie's Katrina Rib

Fixation Socks

Surprise Gift Lace Project (I'm not showing this one because it's for a person who reads this blog)

TK's Giants Afghan

Katrina Bear (cannibalized for the needles)

Felted Messenger Bag

Knitter's Studio (not a) Poncho (I can't find this one!)

Interweave Knits Chevron Capelet (this one is going to be frogged - I can't imagine knitting it now. The matching sweater is warm enough as it is without the capelet).

I forgot about this one - it's the pattern for Knitty's Cosy, which I was planning to turn into a shrug. I think I'm a little shrugged-out, but I don't want to frog it).