So many UFO's

It has been too long since my last post. As usual, I was running late on Father's Day and raced out the door to gift and run and forgot to take a picture of my Dad's socks. Suffice it to say that they are a no frills pair of self-striping Regia in a can't miss colorway for men's socks...black with navy, blue, brown, tan, olive, and light blue....they go with everything.

Since my last post I have started (and completely frogged into oblivion) a cardigan. That idea is tabled until I find a more suitable yarn to work with. It was to be for a 1st birthday coming up in July. Instead, I am about a third of the way through a tiny little dress.

I need to make a list of things I am making or want to make and the associated deadlines so that I do them in the right order. I also need to think about what I want to make (and for whom) for Christmas presents so that I don't find myself behind in November and December.

A partial list is:

Item / Due Date
Reagan dress / July 22
Baby Bender blanket / October (started but I hate the yarn and goofed the pattern...TBF'd)
Snowdrop Shawl / Christmas
Grey Scarf / Christmas (not started)
Bear hat / Christmas (not started)
Green Poncho / Christmas
Purple Poncho / Christmas
Jaywalker socks / none
Surf cable socks / none
Fuzzy marble socks / none
felted pink and orange bag / none
Rug / ASAP
Christmas stocking for me / Christmas (not started)
Christmas stocking for Jake / Christmas ( not started)
Large Woobie for Steph / ?? her birthday? Christmas? (not started)
Willie warmer / January or February (not started)
Horse lace ???????????? (not started...not really)
Skirt / none (not started)
Pink sweater / none
felted cat bed / none


Wow! and I haven't included any socks not already on the needles...

So many socks!

I just finished a pair of socks for my dad. The teenager is going to give the socks I made for him to his dad later today (he refuses to wear them...teenagers!) for Father's Day. I have two other pairs of socks on the needles already (first socks each). And, a long list of socks I want to make...I guess I am always going to have at least two socks on my Turbo size 1's at all times...

I will take pictures of the Dad's socks later today...not to mention the Harlot's shawl that I am working on...

I have designed a sweater for Reagan (Angie's little girl) who will be 1 in July. I am swatching the colorwork now and then will swatch the cable...I just hope I can pull this off..... I have never made a cardigan, never done any intarsia, never done any cables on anything other than a dishcloth. That's a lot of firsts for one garment to live up to. Oh, well, it's not rocket science. I still need to do a lot of math (once I finish these swatches) and am especially worried about drafting the sleeve caps. One step at a time...

Sleep deprivation or appathy??

Last night, today, tonight, and tomorrow is recovery time from the outrageous sleep deprivation I suffer each week. I work nights and only get sleep when the midget is sleeping. So, as soon as I get home from work (anywhere from 3:45 am to 5:30 am) I try to get right to sleep. I usually have to be up by 7:30 so that the DH can get the teenager and monkey to school. Then I get a nap (anywhere from 1-4 hours) as soon as the midget goes to sleep for nap around 9:00am. Now that the older two are out of school for the summer hopefully I'll be able to get a little more sleep. The teenager is not happy that he will have to be the one to get up from 7:30--9:00 but he will have to deal with it.

Of course, I also wonder...would I still feel so appathetic about things if I were getting more than 2-3 hours of sleep a day???? I would say that we'll never know but that's not true...we just won't know for another 3 years and 3 months....when the midget goes to kindergarten.

On the knitting front...the Harlot's Snowdrop Shawl in a cashmere blend with a sparkly accent is coming along very nicely. I am still only on the first foot of the Father's Day Socks for Dad. I need to put the shawl down and get my butt in gear on those. I have 8 days to finish this one, make the 2nd one, wash and dry them both and wrap them! No problem.

I need to get a more suitable needle for my other lace (the as yet only in my head horse shawl). I am thinking a US4 circular should do the trick. I am swatching with a 6 now and it is too loose. I need a much longer 6 for the Snowdrop so, I am going to order some new Turbos.

Other unfinished projects that are being neglected include:

Rug
Ponchos for Leslie's girls
Pink and orange bag to felt
Pillow cover
Pink sweater
Black jaywalker socks for me
Fuzzy burgandy socks for me


Planned projects not even started:

Baby blanket for Mary
Fuzzy bear hat for midget
Woobie for Steph
Skirt for me
Tank top for me
More socks for everyone

So much knitting so little time....aw, who needs sleep anyway?

The Amazing Lace Challenge #1 or "WHAT WAS I THINKING???"

Okay, so I saw this pattern for a hobbyhorse toward the very end of Barbara Walker's third book and thought, "Wow, with a few changes that could look like a real horse instead of a child's toy. I should do that and make a horse-themed shawl for my mom for Christmas." Then just a few days later I ran across the Amazing Lace blog and thinking that there are no such things as conincidences decided to join. Of course, I would step up and say that I will design and make the aformentioned horse-themed shawl.

What I need to add here as a sort of back-story about the team you will be introduced to shortly is the following:

I had never TOUCHED lace-weight yarn let alone work with it before this!
I have never WORKED from a chart much less designed one!
The only lace knitting I have ever done is YO, K2tog, repeat ad nauseum and knit the WS rows. This garment was just finished a couple of weeks ago...
Finally, while I am an extremely adventerous knitter and have produced an amazing number of FO's in a relatively short time, I have only been knitting for 16MONTHS!!!

So, now I ask, "WHAT WAS I THINKING???"

That said, let me introduce you to the rest of my team. Not knowing what yarn I might like (get along with well enough to make a go of this) I purchased both Shimmer (in Maple Leaf) and Gossamer (in Trail) from Knit Picks. A MILE of each (4 skeins) because I was not sure how much this was going to take. I am currently swatching each yarn. The difference in their personalities is amazing! The first time I tried the Shimmer we had a terrible disagreement and parted company on very bad terms. The Gossamer was much kinder to me although we both know it is still in a class (or three) above my abilities.

My fall back (ringer) project and team member is a cashmere blend and novelty yarn (ball tags long ago lost) from my stash that are first cousins to the black shawl I recently finished. With them I will be knitting Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's (the Yarn Harlot's) Snowdrop Shawl. I find that I think in terms of patterns the same way she does. The vagueness of this pattern is in fact comforting.

As far as designing my own shawl goes, I have been studying other shawls and their construction, looking at about a bazillion lace patterns, and have charted one design based on a cross-pole jump. (I am swatching this now but am not entirely happy with it). Here is the graph as it is now. (The diagonal lines from lower left to upper right are not as strong as I would like them to be)

Aside from this motif, the soon to be modified hobby horse, and 2 versions of a "horseshoe" lace (shown above on the Gossamer), I am still relatively clueless (okay, completely clueless). I have thought about putting a whole horse or a horse head in the center of a square shawl and then using some of these other horse related lace motifs around the center.....

Or, I could do panels...

Or maybe a triangular shawl but that seems like the least likely to work...

Let the games begin...we (the lace yarns and I) will be busy training away. For now, The Harlot's Snow Drop will prevail and be our official entrant.