Tinking Frogs ...

Now that got your attention didn't it? And you're prolly thinking, knowing grace, this is going to make some sort of twisted sense .. and believe me .. it does .. honestly!!!

You've prolly guessed the frog part since I've been working on my sweater using recycled yarn, but the tinking you might not have figured out yet!

I've been working on my winter seafoam flower (ravelry project link) and while the left side when up in no time flat, the right was problematic-ish .. I got both the right side and left side, joined in the middle and one piece when I realized what they meant by ... work as follows from RS: 3 garter sts, M.1 ... on both the left and right back pieces .. when you join the pieces together you get ... 6 garter sts, M.4 ... // sigh .. ah well .. froggy went to market and I started both pieces again .. while prolly no one but me would have notice .. the fact that I noticed was enough ..

I got the left side all done with no incident and started on the right side .. noticed something I missed maybe 5 rows in ... rippit rippit rippit rippit again ... started again, got halfway thru when I noticed that I had added an extra cable twist .. AAAAAARRRRRHHHHHHGGGGGGG .. so rippit rippit rippit rippit again ..

FINALLY - the right side is done with a few missed garter st .. at this point .. i'll live with it me thinks .. and if someone is looking that closely at that location, it's not my knitting they are checking out // znerk!! ahem .. anywho ..

I got the sides down and joined up ... I've not sewn in the back flower yet, I'll wait for that, just in case I change my mind about ripping that ..

My latest quandry comes from this particular direction .. "AT THE SAME TIME ... inc 1 st each side by K 2 sts in the last but one st, and repeat the inc on .... " I understand that I need to increase each side .. but am totally wondering What K2 stitches???? The pattern link is here and this is the section titled BACK PIECE after the CROCHET FLOWER and LEFT and RIGHT SIDE sections .. section starts out with "BACK PIECE: Slip the 2 back pieces on the same needle with pattern towards pattern = 66-72-80-88-98-108 sts. Continue as follows: 1 edge st " .. oh and if you need to know . i'm making the XL size ... Any ideas? Help? Interpretations????

Now for the 'tinking' part .. i was reading an article in either knitting daily or interweave online .. not sure what one .. but the author was discussing her frogging skills, but also talked about reversed knitting which she coined as tink .. as that's knit spelt backwards .. how clever is that!

AHA ... found it!

I decided to read a bit further on and found this sentence in the FRONT instructions just a wee bit further down the page ...
DECREASES AND INCREASES: At the same time when piece measures 3 cm / 1 1/8'' dec at the side as described for back piece and when piece measures 22 cm / 8 3/4'' inc at the side as described for back piece. When all dec and inc are complete there are 42-46-50-54-58-64 sts on needle.

So I do my increases at the edges :D .. w00t w00t ..

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