Third time's a charm

So, this is the time of year when I usually post my completely unrealistic New Years resolutions and then disappear for several months.

Here's the list for 2010!

1. Complete one sweater per month. I tried this in 2009 and made it to April. I have a feeling I can be much more productive this year.

2. Work out 4-5 times per week. I did this for about 3 months in 2009 and actually lost a few inches and firmed up and felt great. So I know I can do it again.

3. Take at least one picture per day. Post said pictures on Facebook, Photobucket, and/or my blog.

4. Learn Spanish. My (semi) new boyfriend is from Guatemala and installed Rosetta Stone on my laptop for Christmas so I can learn to speak his native language.

5. Save up $1000. I got close during the middle of the year in 2009 and then had to spend a bunch on car repairs.

6. Get rid of all the unnecessary junk I still have. I think a couple trips to Goodwill should do the trick.

And the biggest one of all:

7. Quit my awful soul-sucking job and find something more tolerable to do for a living.

See ya in a few months!

Four down!

It turns out last time I was wrong about the sleeves. The one with the longer sleeve cap was actually the correct one. I realized this after I ripped it back & started re-knitting it. So I ended up fixing both sleeves.

I really need to find someone to take pictures of me in my finished items.

I plan on starting sweater number 5 tonight!

A productive weekend!

I got quite a few things done this weekend, amazingly. On Friday all I had planned to do was work out on Saturday morning, and after my alarm went off I was really second-guessing it. But then once I got up & started moving around I felt really good. So I did about 30 minutes at the gym, came home & did a bunch of cleaning for about an hour, then later in the day went for a 2-mile walk around the neighborhood. Today I was sitting around and had thought it was supposed to rain, but then once I was pretty sure it was going to be nice all day I decided to go for a hike, so I Googled hiking trails near Albany & found a nice, semi-easy one about 2 miles long and drove out to do that. It was nice, there were falls & stuff, some wildflowers, and I saw a snake! I took pictures but they're all blurry and crappy so I won't bother posting them.

When I got home I finished the last piece of my fourth sweater in my sweater-a-month series. It's blocking now. But I'm pretty sure I made a mistake because......

This is the right sleeve. See how the cap curves nicely like a proper sleeve is supposed to do?

Well, the second picture is of the left sleeve with the body. It does not look right. I think I may have fudged the insructions a little when doing the left sleeve, because I did that first, and I just did the right sleeve tonight and I was following the instructions exactly. I thought maybe my eyes were just playing tricks on me but then I measured. There is a difference of almost 2 inches in length of the sleeve caps. Clearly I made a mistake.

I rarely block at all, so if I had followed my normal procedures, I would have never noticed this til the assembly phase. The only reason I blocked this piece was because the sleeve & hem edges were rolling something fierce as I was knitting so I wanted them to lay nice & flat. So tomorrow when everything's dry I'll just have to rip back the one sleeve cap & fix it. Then comes the fun of putting it together. Buttons!!!

February & March Sweaters

It's 11 on a Saturday night and I'm hanging out at home watching movies & knitting, and I am not embarrassed by that at all. My neighbors sure are having one hella loud party though. Being in a neighborhood this close to a college has disadvantages I guess.

Since I'm definitely not gonna get to sleep anytime soon with all the ruckus outside my window, here's a post!

I'm right on schedule with my one-sweater-per-month goal. Here's the one I made for February:



Pattern: Dainty Pinstripes Pullover, Interweave Knits Winter 2008
Yarn: Queensland Uruguay DK...I don't think they even make the stuff anymore, I haven't been able to find it anywhere.
Mods: Made mine in a single color. Made sleeves & body longer than the pattern called for. Otherwise followed everything exactly.

And for March and the first quarter of Project Spectrum:

Pattern: Tree Jacket by Zephyr Style

Yarn: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes Worsted

Mods: Made the sleeves in stockinette instead of garter stitch. Made everything a bit longer as usual.

One thing I've noticed about Zephyr Style patterns is that they run big. At least for me they do. I tried to make Juliet a few months ago and even after making the smallest size possible it was too big & completely unflattering on me. I plan to try to make it something more lightweight so it has some drape to it. I had exact gauge on this one & made the size that would have been appropriate for me based on that. I got almost all the way through it only to try it on & discover that it was too big. So I made the next size down & I'm happy with the results.

Branching Out

I thought I would use Project Spectrum as an opportunity to experiment with different media. I love knitting, but it doesn't get me out of the house. One of the ideas I saw was to do a photo essay. This seemed like a good way to explore something new. I've been meaning to take more walks and explore my neighborhood a bit so I'm planning to take my camera along with me on my little tours of Albany in the upcoming months, searching for things that fit into Project Spectrum.

Everyone was celebrating St. Patty's Day this weekend, so yesterday probably would have been a good day to spot some green. But instead I spent the day enjoying fine beers and eating Reubens. Then I went to a party with the guy I've been seeing. I don't feel as though I fit in with his friends too well. The only topics of conversation tend to be sports & politics so most of it just goes right over my head and I have very little to contribute. Oh and his ex was there! Based on the way he talks about her like she's a crazy person I was kind of afraid. She came over & chatted with us for a few minutes and she was really nice but it was still completely awkward. Then he kept talking about her after we left the party. Maybe it's time to branch out in terms of men as well....

Project Spectrum Knitting

I decided to actually take part in Project Spectrum this year. I had planned to last year & then just started knitting whatever so I didn't really stick to it. I'm already about 80% of the way through my first project for the first quarter, and it's going so fast that at this rate I think I will have plenty of time for a second since each quarter is 2 months long. Here's what I've got so far:

This yarn was originally Wool of the Andes worsted in Tan. I had tried to knit an aran sweater with it a couple of years ago but that didn't work out. And it turns out I wasn't crazy about the way the color looked on me anyway, so I dyed it green. I had about 3/4 of a sweater made out of it after that and it didn't look like I was going to have enough yarn to finish it so I figured I'd use it for something that required less yarn. Enter the Tree Jacket. It'll do. It's not going to be my favorite sweater necessarily but it will look nice. I plan to post more pics when it's blocked and finished. :)

January Sweater

My 2009 resolution to complete one sweater per month is coming along well. Note I said "complete", not "make". My point? this sweater just doesn't seem to want to get finished in a month's time. I'm in the home stretch right now; I've got the body & sleeves done. Now comes the business of assembling everything, which pretty much sucks for me because I hate seaming. I decided to put that off til the very last second by making the neck first. Here's some pics so you can get an idea of the texture:

It is going to be DAMN warm, maybe even excessively so, meaning I'll probably get about a month of use out of it before I have to stash it til next winter. I'm also knitting this for the Sexy Knitters Club Q1 KAL. Yay for killing two birds with one stone!