I wish I had more to show you....

I don't have a lot of actual knitting progress to show you...

I spend most of my knitting time at home swatching. Swatching for what? The Chuppah border...I did a couple that did not work out and those were ripped without even pictures for posterity. The swatches were of my original plan for the border, a nice leaf pattern. It didn't look so hot in my own knitting. I am now swatching about 9 different motifs involving leaves in some form or the other for the border and pictures will come when I have them all pinned out to show you and get opinions on.

I did however, get some totally picture worthy things recently.

One came in the mail...
Some were delivered by M to make me smile:

Yes, that is Wollmeise, the holy grail of sock yarn. I scored some from yarnissima in a kit. I don't know if I will knit the patternt that came with it with the Wollmeise, but I will use it sometime. It's beautiful yarn and a beautiful pattern.

Then, I went to Friday Night Knitting two fridays ago and I won this:

It's sooooo soft. I highly recommend getting yourself to Ewe'll Love It in Nashua, New Hampshire and getting yourself a skein of this to keep near you at all times to fondle and love and make yourself happy.

Here is my progress on my take along project: a second scarf for my stepfather (since he lost his first one).

It's made with Blue-Grey Berroco Ultra Alpaca in a basketweave pattern I had to think of on the fly on a train. It's just 5 stitches stockinette, 5 stitches reverse stockinette, over 10 rows then switching. It's 30 stitches wide.

It's turning out pretty well and is easy, mindless knitting. It is also very nice and soft yarn.

I will be starting both a set of socks soon (for my grandfather) and a shawl for my Grandma.

Unfortunately, addressing save the dates for my wedding is taking up a lot of at home time right now so there is less knitting time. I did have a neighbor come over and get a refresher on how to cast on. She is making the most beautiful afghan and knows how to do knit and purl but needed a little refresher on the long tail cast on. I referred her to knittinghelp.com as well, it's videos are such a life-saver!

Happy Knitting and pictures to come of the Chuppah border swatches when I have them all finished!!

4 rows to go...

4 rows to go on the body of the Chuppah....

The anticipation is eating me up!

Happy Knitting

I won the race!

I wrote this on January 30, 2009.

I completely and utterly won the race!

I finished this section of the Chuppah last night (the night of 1/29/2009) for those of you who want dates. This smashed my goal of by February 13, 2009 and my what I thought was unrealistic goal of the end of January. I think I get a day off.

This is from today-I took two days off completely from the Chuppah...

Where am I now?

I am right here:
That "here" is 24 rows into the 49 row border (and about to add a life-line, thankyouverymuch). The Chuppah is folded into fourths there so what you see there is not the real width. It's huge and keeps me warm while I knit it.

I had enough problems with this border the last go-around, something about the ten stitch repeat makes me make mistakes, in conjunction with my mind playing tricks on me. I figured out my one mistake this time and fixed it-no harm, no foul, but I am definitely putting in that lifeline to nix the potential for losing all this progress.

On my next post I will show you the Wollmeise I got in the mail-it's so pretty and the completed fingerless gloves-which have been sitting around whining for me to weave in their ends. Maybe tomorrow.....

For now, Happy Knitting-I am off to add a lifeline.

I'm winning the race!!!

I am totally winning the race of the Chuppah. Now that I have said that, something will come along and bite me in the butt.. I have one more repeat (20 rows) on this section and I will be finished! Then I do the flower section again. It kicked my butt the first time around-I went one stitch off and it went to heck.

Here it is good right now...
It was at this transition point this evening. That's three cones down and one to go. That means I have knit 3,360 yards on this project so far. I am also about 85% done with the body. I can't figure out how much percentage the border will be-so my calculations are all about the body. I am leaving about 10% off how far I say I am on ravelry for the border-but I could be wildly underestimating how much knitting it is to go around the entire thing in a border. I mean, it's huge already. It keeps me warm while I knit it. I definitely want this sucker finished by the summer.
Wish me good knitting vibes and Happy Knitting!

HOPE

I have hope for the future, for a better future. I hope that when I look back in 100 days, in 100 months, and how ever many years I have left, that I can look back at my country and be proud of the direction the country has taken and its place in the world. I have hope that tomorrow will be the start of that again.

Here's to hoping!

Happy Inauguration Day Knitting!

How quick can I get this done???

I am racing, racing, racing! I am halfway done with the Lighted Torches motif on the Chuppah. Even though we are still 7 and 3/4 months away from the wedding, I want this done well in advance so I am working hard on getting it done. I have 4 more repeats of this motif, that is 80 rows and then I have the 50 or so row flower pattern that is on the bottom and then the border. I should be done well in advance as long as I don't slack off.
I am halfway done with the second fingerless mitt as well.

I also bought some more sock yarn-but I had a gift certificate, so it cost a grand total of $1 for me. It's hard to get a good picture of it however.
I came down with a stomach bug so I took this day off after I was done with court. That's why I got to this point of the chuppah. I am unfortunately missing knitting this week because of it.

Happy Knitting!!!

I finished a hat!!! Also, one fingerless mitt...

I finished Michael's hat (Part Deux). I think he looks good in it. It is not itchy as well, which is good.
I also knit one fingerless glove. It doesn't do me a whole lot of good right now, being one fingerless glove.
It's Spirogyra in Malabrigo Silky Merino in Plum Blossom (the short version). Here is a link to the pattern.

HAPPY KNITTING AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!