16 Weeks

16 Weeks is the amount of time that I have to complete my 11 in 2011 project.  It will be nothing short of a miracle if I can pull this off.  It looks like Christmas knitting will become Valentine's knitting.  So that means only Mommy and the Mr. will get something.  Yes, I am being totally selfish and I deserve to be.  Noone in this family wants to learn to knit, so too bad for them.  Hahahaaaaa!  OK, I will stop being so mean.  Maybe I will squeeze in a hat or two.  But more importantly, I need to get these sweaters done. 

So, here is my list.

1. Vaila by Gudrun Johnston
2. Mod Podge by Adriana Hernandez
3. Interlocking Cables by Shirley Paden
4. Textured Circle Shrug by Stephanie Japel
5. Military Jacket by Veronik Avery
6. Effie by Kim Hargreaves
7. Parcel by Carol Feller
8. Chambord by Karen Maple
9. Autumn Rose by Eunny Jang
10. Wisteria by Kate Gilbert
11. Dahlia Cardigan by Heather Zoppetti

I had a sweater on the list that was a DK weight tunic with a hood, but I scratched that because I knew it would take forever  (as if the Kim Hargreaves sweater won't take forever).  The real problem is, it was getting extremely heavy on my needle cables, and they popped.  Instead of dealing with all that junk immediately, I decided to just do another sweater 1 needle size smaller. 

So, here is my progress report.

Vaila is complete.

Mod Podge is completely knitted.  I have to seam the sides and attach the arms.  I also have to sew the belt onto a buckle, and add belt loops and snaps.






Interlocking Cables has the body done in one piece.  The back is complete.  I still have to do the front, sleeves, sew sleeve seams, join it to the body, and complete the collar.  The goo thing is, I only have 2 seams to actually sew. 


The Textured Circle Shrug has 1 sleeve complete and the body is complete.  Once both sleeves are complete, I have to do an insane amount of ribbing around the shrug part.  This sweater is all stickinette and reverse stockinette, so I should be able to easily finish it at knitting group or watching television. 

The Military Jacket has the lower portion of the back complete.  That's it. 

Effie had 1/4 of the waistband complete.  After I finish that, I have to start actually knitting the body.  It is written in pieces, but I will do it in the round.  I think seaming Kidsilk Haze would be a nightmare. 

All of the others haven't been started yet.  Parcel is destined to become the project that I work on during Rhinebeck weekend.  Wisteria will be my NaKniSwemo Project.  Autumn Rose will happen sometime in between.  Dahlia may get casted on this month, only because I am itching to get the lace pattern done, and get it to a point where I can just do stockinette and be able to travel with it. 

I know this looks like a ridiculously crazy task.  However, there is a method to my madness.  I will use my transit time to work on sleeves, and swatching, and stockinette portions that don't require much thinking.  I have yarn for everything except for Chambord. 

My plan for the week is as follows. 

• Finish the front and sleeves of Interlocking Cables.  Join the sleeves to the body and work on the Collar by next weekend
• Swatch for Dahlia
• Work on the Textured Circle Shrug during knitting group.
• Find a buckle for the Mod Podge belt. 

More updated next Sunday.  If I have an enourmous breakthrough in the middle of the week, expect to see something sooner.

Weekend Plans for 10 in 2010.... FOILED!

So, I set out to have a calm, relaxing weekend at home.  I though that I would get a lot of knitting done.  My intent was to work on my Through the Loops Mystery Sock while I was traveling home from work on Friday, finish the earflaps of my Chullo hat on Saturday, and perform the surgery required to complete the hat.  I also wanted to work on my Interlocking Cables sweater on Sunday, and just see how far I could get (no pressure).  All of these projects are 10 in 2010 projects.

Currently, the sock is at the heel flap stage.  The last clue for the toe was distributed on Friday.  I don't have a serious problem with the sock.  It's just that row 11 of the pattern is a cable row, and I hate cabling socks because the yarn and needles are so tiny.  So, I would get into a good groove on my travels to and from work, and then reach the cable row. Ugh!  It's really hard to do that on a moving bus.  I am also afraid that I will drop my cable needle and lose it forever on the bus. 

My Chullo hat is at a stage where the crown decreases have started.  It has gotten to the point where I need to switch to double pointed needles. 

However, those DPN's are being used to recreate the ear flaps, because I don't like the ones that I have attached.  So, I forsee an earflap surgery in the near future.  I will remove the existing earflaps, leave live stitches on the hat, and kitchener the new earflaps to the hat.  But first, the new earflaps have to be made.  I decided to double knit them, and use an alternate pattern so that my hat isn't too much of an alpaca parade.  Here is a picture of the beginning of my double knitting work. 

The most troubling/annoying thing about the earflaps was that I needed to do increases in the double knit project.  I have yet to find a youtube video that explains how to do this effectively.  I have found pictures, but they just confuse me.  Somehow it all managed to click when I realized that you have to increase on both the main side and reverse side.  After that discovery, the knitting part was a piece of cake...until I got sleepy.

My Interlocking Cables Sweater is at the point where I am increasing for the chest/bust area.  This sweater is full of exquisite cables, and just CANNOT be done on the bus/train because it has gotten to a point where it is just too big to carry.  I'm not afraid to lose my cable needle, because it is a size 7 DPN, and I have made it thus far without a problem.  I was hoping to have at least separated the front from the back. 
Here is a picture of the sweater before I go to the bust increase section.

My 10 in 2010 knitting "flow" had gotten interrupted by a special request for a baby sweater/hat set for the neighbor's soon-to-be-here child.  The baby shower is this coming Saturday, so I have to move fast.  I don't know the gender of the baby, so that made it a bit difficult in choosing the right colors from my stash.  Then a lightbulb went on.  I realized that the mother-to-be's favorite color is orange.  So, I pulled out some Berroco Comfort that I received in a swap and casted on.  Here is the sweater. 

So, what really happened this weekend was.... I got invited to an awesome Halloween party.  I went shopping for a costume on Friday (after working 2 hours extra), and was just too tired to knit on the bus ride home.  Saturday, I spent the day with my grandfather, then went to Target for some last minute make-up to start getting ready for my halloween party.  The makeup took forever to do, but in the end it was totally awesome.  I got to the party just before the bewitching hour of 1AM when they started charging an entrance fee.  I saw a lot of old friends and made some new ones that I would love to party with again. 

Here is my costume. 

Sunday, like a true Vampire, I slept through most of the sunlight hours.  I woke up in time to cook dinner for my mom, then flat ironed my hair because the HOT party made it curl up after it was so nicely done.  After the hair fiasco I decided to write a blog post.  Too tired to knit, so I will be working on that baby sweater on the bus tomorrow.  I hope everyone had a happy, safe, and enjoyable Halloween. I'm excited to buy 50% off candy tomorrow.