FO Friday 164: Take That, Bainbridge Scholars !

Tarot of Pagan Cats

It is wet and grey, there is no-one to either model or take a photo of me wearing my newly-completed Blackberry Cabled Cardigan; which I am calling the Strawberry Cabled Cardigan because of the lovely dusty rose pink shabby chic color of the Stylecraft Life DK yarn that I used, in which I look most becoming.

So here are the final NaKniSweMo (National Knit a Sweater Month) 2013 statistics:  60,720 stitches.

Umm ..... that's about the only statistic that matters, actually. 

I promise you it looks a lot better when being worn. It is a shame that a design with such unusual  characteristics (knitted-on shaped border) and a relatively high pattern price was not as well-written as I feel it should have been: for instance, when attempting to make some of the key elements of the design, like the curved fronts, I feel it would be far more helpful to specifically say where and when to insert the increases, and for how many rows, rather than leave it to the knitter's guesswork. The same goes for the placement of the cable panel on the right front - some of us do not have a very well-functioning spatial brain. Or whatever is that bit that reverses and visualizes at the same time.

Anyway. I am super-chuffed with it, but exhausted. I am allowing myself a day without hooks or needles so that the blisters can heal, and merely surfing other people's projects via Tami's Amis  ....

FO Friday 163: Umm ....

Fantastic Menagerie Tarot

So I seemed to have been really efficient this week - I have caught up on NaKniSweMo by completing the left front of the Blackberry Cabled Cardigan, which leaves me only the right front and a million miles of border to finish by next weekend.

I have also finished the last clue of the SusannaIC MKAL. Then for no reason whatsoever apart from an empty head, left it in a heap for two days before washing and blocking it. Not only did it take forever or nearly 3 hours to bind off (70 squillion stitches. Yes, I counted.) you can  imagine that blocking it this morning took quite a while as well; and now I have no sensation in my fingertips apart from pain.

I have mucked out Mini Diva's sty in anticipation of her return from her residential school trip later - but only reaped the rewards of one full black bag. I have even had some lunch. 

Then I sat around wondering why I felt like I had forgotten to do something - I had paid the bills and spoken to the landlady about the wet walls in Destructo Boy's room, so the ooky stuff was out of the way. 

And then, with only an hour left before Mini Diva's return, I remembered: I had planned to blog. So here it is. Worth the wait, wasn't it ?

No ?

OK, here, look at some pretty pictures of the Romanesque Shawl (Emily Ross) that I finished a while ago, and gifted (I'm sorry, Jill, truly I am, but the sound of your teeth on edge is kinda oddly appealing) the day I unpinned it to a lovely friend of mine who has been having a tough time recently, but still keeps smiling. I wonder if she might share with me those drugs she must be taking ?

If you remember, the yarn was Lanas Stop Baby Wool which I bought from one of my LYS', Jenny Wren's, which is well-stocked with a variety of good yarns at all price points, and is warm, welcoming and friendly too. No, she didn't pay me to say that - though if a ball or two of free yarn fell my way, that would be a lovely coincidence, wouldn't it ?

Now, pop on over to Tami's Amis to see who else has finished things ....

WIP Wednesday 170: TAAT

Housewives Tarot

I am feeling somewhat ... out of sorts ... right now, so like an over-adventurous snail who has stuck out his eye tentacles too far and got them snipped off by a wicked bird, I shall be winding my neck in sharply and toot sweet, hiding up til the wind changes and there is no risk of a house falling on me.

Luckily, while I am down in the storm cellar, I can occupy myself with the SusannaIC MKAL. This week was Clue 7, which leaves us here:

it's all in the blocking

And having had to rip back my NoKniSweMo sleeeves back to the beginning because I am a dodo and did not read the instructions properly, meant I lost almost 5000 stitches. That meant I sulked, which was a further two days lost, and now here they are, re-done:

Yes, they are TAAT (Two At A Time) because sleeves can get terribly boring. On the other hand, if you make a mistake, you tend to make it twice. Like I just did.

Oh well, there'll be less garbled updates over at Tami's Amis, while I take the kids for their dental checkup ....

FO Friday 160: Moving Right Along

The FO this week is me: I am exhausted ! I have been sadly absent this week as it has been half-term, and I have actually been out Doing Things with the kids. Nobody is more surprised about that than me. They have been swimming a few times, saw an uncle and the middle cousin, eaten large, fancy and expensive ice cream sundaes at Ra-Ra's, had a couple of play dates, carved pumpkins, gone trick or treating, and there have been a couple of parties. Here is their Hallowe'en swag:

 

Appropriate buckets, aren't they ? Skulls for the evilness of sugar, and bloodshot eyeballs for the effects of evil sugar. Yes, I have pinched some of their sweeties, yanno, just to check they're OK.

 I have a few hours to myself right now as Mini Diva and Destructo Boy are headed to Auntie Fashion's with Belo, and Titch is not yet home; so I will tell you that the Forest Pansy shawl is in a Time Out right now. I found a minor error, a difference between the chart and the written instructions, which meant tinking back 1 row. But, 2 rows from the end, I found a repeated error I had made back in chart 2, which I cannot ignore, however hard I try - and believe me, I have tried. All the large lilac section will have to be ripped back to the end of the dark violet section.

 

 So, it is in the Seriously Naughty Corner, because I had been hoping to complete it this week, in time to start NaKniSweMo today.

 

I am starting NaKniSweMo anyway. I just need to either find an app for my Nokia Lumia that will do stitch counting, learn how to use Excel in a millisecond, or - most likely - record how many stitches I knit each day using good old pencil and paper.

Blackberry Cabled Cardigan, made in Strawberry

And seeing as how the stitch count that needs to be knitted each day to complete a 50,000 stitch cardigan in 30 days is phenomenal (apparently, I have been told, I haven't done any math myself) I really must get going and make a start. You, however, can pop over to Tami's Amis and see some real FOs .....

WIP Wednesday 167: Clearing the Decks

Halloween Tarot

Wow, the week is rolling by fast, isn't it ? The day after tomorrow is the start of half-term, when I can wake in the early hours, hear the roaring wind and staccato stampede of rain, and simply roll over for more sleep. Yes, I am rather looking forward to it.

My major WIP this week is actually Titch aka DH. I finished his Old Man Cardigan ages ago, but he will not put it on for me to take a photo. I have promised to cut off his head - after all, no-one is interested in him, just the cardigan - but no joy so far. I can't use a hanger as I don't have one big enough, and it looks all wrong and ooky, like a 2D chess board on the Enterprise.

how it should be

As ever, I am focussed on the positive, and that is the progress on the Forest Pansy Shawl:

The yarn is definitely not soft. I would not like to say scratchy, exactly. I shall think of an appropriate description, and will hope that fabric conditioner will make it touch-the-skin wearable. Of course, the yarn is from Shetland, and the Scots are a hardy, dour people who wear barbed wire undervests for fun and amusement, and no doubt this yarn would feel as wussy as angora to them. I love angora even though I have none, but I am a gin-swilling shandy-drinking Southern jessie.

 And I have completed Clue 4 in the SusannaIC Autumn Mystery Shawl KAL:

I have no idea how long the KAL is supposed to take, but as long as I finish the Forest Pansy Shawl, I think I will be ready and able to start NaKniSweMo (National Knit a Sweater Month, 1 sweater or cardigan, 50,000 stitches, 30 days) next week while my authorly friends take part in NaNoWriMo. 

Look at my lovely custom-made badge, with a martini and color co-ordinated to my blog and everything ! How cool is that ?

Thank you to Ana, who made this.

And now I am off to Tami's Amis to see what everybody else is up to ....