... crying ...

One of these days, I'm going to listen to my gut! I had a bad feeling about using the 10s with that pattern! I knit to gauge for one .. my swatch using 8s or 9s came out a ½" to small on the swatch .. BUT, the swatch was on stockinette stitch - NOT the cable pattern .. and I've been knitting long enough to know better that when you use a cable pattern, you should actually use smaller needles as it does create a LOT of give to the pattern .. bloody hell .. sigh

I KNEW it was going to be big on me .. but thought it would be okay if I could get the right collar on it .. but when I got the front ribbing for the zipper on it .. I decided there's NO way in hell this is going to work .. the length is good (my math coming into play here), the sleeve length is good .. it's not to bad across the back .. but the armpits are large enough to fit my family in, and the front .. oi vay! Plus the width of the front .. crap!!!

So I'm frogging it .. at this time, I've 3 of 5 pieces frogged .. took me over ½ the day to find all my seams and take it apart .. wowsers but do I do a mean seam! On this one piece that I'm working to unravel .. the knot is in there pretty good .. so I might have to give up and do some snipping to free my yarn from it's current hostage situation ..

I've a few other sweaters that I can do in it's place .. there's this absolutely darling one that I'm looking at .. my friend wants one of this lady's patterns and we are going to see if she'll do a deal of sorts for 2 patterns .. if so I'm going to do Katje - this is going to knit up so quick it's not funny! stocking stitch and seed stitch!! w00t w00t I could be wearing this in no time at all since it's seamless :D .. waiting to see what the designer has to say ..

But there's no super rush as hallowe'en is coming and I'm doing a friends costume as well as my own .. thank God for straight seams! LOL .. the worst is cutting it out! He's going to be Obi Wan Kenobi and i'm looking at padme amidala - raiding closets for mine :D

Anywho .. the Hoodie or Not is officially - NOT and 75% frogged at this point and time.

Knit 1 Purl 1 Knit 1 Purl 2 ** repeat ...

For almost ½ a year this sweater sat abandoned and neglected in my knitting bag and partially on my end table .. the cats didn't mind it as they had some soft yarn to kick around .. but i've hit overdrive with this in the past few months ... I'm sitting here trying to think of the time line and I'm pretty sure it was when I started the 10 - 7 shift over 2 months ago .. roughly .. so maybe mid august is when I actually picked this up again .. now at that time I only knitted a few rows once a week for our knatter .. but lately (you know it's getting colder here right?), I've been kicking it into gear so I can wear this at work :D .. I'm guessing (if and when I can actually get the time to work on it), that I've maybe a week of work left on it .. 3 if you include the math and me trying to avoid DOING said math :D heh

I brought my camera to knatter last week and had Helene take a pic of me front and back so I can show off what I've done so far .. I'm pretty pleased with it .. altho the shallow shoulders forced me to be creative with the collar now .. I wasn't going to do the hoodie that is with the pattern as there just isn't going to be enough yarn .. or there "MIGHT" be, but excuse me if I decided to chicken out on that experiment ..

I was going to use a taller standing collar to keep the back of my neck warm, but with how shallow the shoulders are, I thought that would look super funky .. so I'm doing a variation of a double folded shawl collar (or maybe a single .. depends on yarnage), I've already got the zipper and will be doing short ribbing for the edge as that follows the existing ribbing .. granted I could get away with even less as I do swim in this .. and I knit to gauge .. I KNEW I should have used 9s instead of 10s for this project .. ** sigh

I had almost reached this point when I found this pattern on Bernat .. I just about dropped a litter of kittens .. talk about exactly what I wanted .. WITHOUT the mental gymnastics with all that stoopid math .. ah well .. what can you do .. and I did look on Bernat when I was hunting for this pattern .. but hopefully I'll have this done in just over a week! I picked up the stitches the other nite and plan to do the ribbing, THEN battle the collar :D

striving for ... balance ....

It's an amusing concept .. really it is .. what makes it so amusing?? Well dictionary.com states that balance:

–noun
1. a state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution of weight, amount, etc.
3. mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior, judgment, etc.
24. to serve as a counterpoise to; counterbalance; offset: The advantages more than balance the disadvantages.

Well there's more, but these suit my purpose just fine - striving for balance in my life. When i had the that (*&#$)(*#$ 2 - 11 shift, i had NO life whatsoever - all i did was sleep and work .. and eat. With the next shift, I did MUCH better .. that one was 10am - 7pm - kind of a blechy shift - but compared to the previous one .. it was nirvana!! I got to see my family and see my friends ... During that shift we started to do knatter again ... once a week, we would get together; drink starbucks, knit or whatever hand project of choice we wanted to work on :D.

I finished my kitty quilt at knatter and it's even been washed too! my idea of raw edging the appliquilted parts worked like a charm .. they could fray a wee bit more to suit me, but it's still fantabulous! No pics of it yet .. but soon .. and imitating a lump on the couch under it just perfect! It was great to get this 10 year plotted and planned quilt done and usable!!

I was mid-way thru my sleeves for my "Purple Hoodie or Not", and in the the past 2 months, with mostly working on this once a week - I am now stitching the seams together! Even bought the zipper for it .. All I have left to do is the sleeve and side seams on both sides .. and it's got some serious heft to it .. boy is this gonna be nice and toasty warm! I'm guessing with Reg being gone for 3 weeks farm sitting, I'm going to have a load of time to watch NCIS and get this done :D

I'm going to use the red I have in this yarn for my next sweater .. I just LOVE what I've picked out ... but it might be a serious challenge and a half based on comments I've read .. but again .. I'm not one to NOT do something b/c it gives ppl issues .. heh . .if anything that's a goad for me to actually do it .. and this in red is going to be just so awesome! - Check it out .. Pasandra - Berroco.com Knits. I want to read it over before i jump in and see what all the fuss is about .. it's gorgeous and it'll be GREAT for work!!

heh .. my new shift which I've only been doing a week is 8 - 5 - sunday mondays off again .. which was my second choice .. but getting up at 6:30am is an adventure and a half LOL ~ but, the 7:30am wake up time got easier and easier for me .. right about now I need a sleep-deprived coma to help me along ... I might just do that on Sunday :D