Christmas looms over my head...

Ok so yeah, I'm grossly behind on Christmas everything. I went and accidentally got myself addicted to WoW at the worst possible time ever, and ended up getting almost no knitting done. I also realize that I should have really organized myself better and decided what I was going to make for everyone a long time ago, so at the *very* least I could have had all the materials I needed to attempt to complete said projects.

I suppose part of the reason I'm behind is because I was expecting more time at work to be able to knit, but since they got rid of about 1/3 of our workforce and the holiday season is rolling through, we got slammed with chats and I've hardly had time to browse through my favorite blogs, nevermind knit. Combine that with the fact that the weather is ranging from -30 to -45 with windchill, and by the time I get home I'm too exhausted and cranky to do much else except level my mining skill or occassionally make a home cooked meal.

Oh well. I have this weekend off, and if I must I'll go out and buy everybody lotto tickets. I don't think I know a single person who doesn't love those, right? Then I can concentrate on my knitting and letting it be a fun process rather than a deadline thing.

Also, I thought I'd be done my mom's shawl by now, and I don't know how, but I'm running out of yarn for it. I thought I'd only need 6.5 skeins, but I just finished the last repeat for the pattern and it's obvious that it's going to need, at the least, 2 more repeats. How did it end up being so different from the pattern in the books?? It said to use aran/worsted on US9's, which I did. I even made 3 swatches, and the 9's made my gauge to big, but I went with them anyways... I'm kind of disappointed that the overall look of the shawl isn't turning out how the picture looks on the book. >_<

Where's mah knittin' at???

Wow, I've been so busy lately I haven't had any time to knit whatsover! :( I spent a mad month there getting ready to apply for school (I got accepted!) and then after that work got insanely busy so I haven't gotten any work done whatsoever on Christmas knitting.. Now my days off for the next 3 weeks are all over the place, so I don't know when I'm going to find the time... and I'm poor, so Christmas presents might be a little late for everyone this year.

Circular storage issues?

This is where I keep my circulars :D

Addi Turbos!

Alex and I went to Ram Wools and I finally got my addiTurbos in US9.. *drool* My only beef with the addi's is that the ends are a little blunt for my taste.. but the way the yarn slides up the needles with no resistance and no snags.. oh, more than makes up for it :D



Godly.



So I've made some headway on the Meseta Alta shawl, this was before I switched to circs and I've done about a repeat and a half more. I started using dental floss as my lifeline, the wool kept holding the shape of yarn lifelines, and I'm worried it won't come out with blocking. :(
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I kind of regret not getting a lighter wool or a softer type of yarn for this. I keep looking at the picture from the book and her exact shawl was what I fell in love with. Hopefully at the end it will look all classy and gorgeous and I'll feel better about it. :P



I also cast on a toque, but I wasn't paying attention and screwed up some ribbing. See that? UGH. And since I hate ribbing I almost frogged the damn thing before I'd even started... So I ripped back a bit and I've now started the pattern. After all that, I found out that I can simply pull the stitches out above the one I screwed up and pick them up in the right direction.. duh. Oh well, learning experience!

I really want to try mittens soon. I just feel like I've asked so many questions in LJ:knitting that they're gonna kick me out if I don't post more FO's than I post questions.. lol




Oh and randomly, here's a pic of Navi and kippers:

Natural light really is a lot nicer!

So I'm enjoying my day off today! I realized I don't have any US 9 circs and I'm going to need a pair if I'm going to finish the Meseta Alta shawl any time soon, so I went to Wolseley Wardrobe to buy a pair (Addi Turbos, omg!) and when I got there they didn't have any ;_; I knew I should have called.. so I stopped at Prairie Sky Books and got some yummy new incense! I got Saffron, Desert Spice and Vanilla Amber! I also picked up some brocolli and grapes from the market by my house, yummers! I can't wait to cook dinner for Alex tonight!

So anyways, here are some things I've been working on..



This is my Butterfly Hat test drive, I did this with Patons Classic Wool Merino on US 7's. I had planned on making another one for my mom in some lovely dark purple Cascade 220 I had found, but I don't really like the end result of this hat, so I may just make her a cabled toque instead, we'll see! If I do, I'll have to make her a matching scarf too, I just know it! :P







The infamous My So-Called Scarf. I found this gorgeous Araucania Atacama at Ram Wools, but the colourway had such quick changes I couldn't find a scarf pattern that would show it off properly until I found this one! The yarn is insanely thin, so this may take me 300 years to knit up :D Since it's just for me, I'm just going to knit it whenever I need something mindless to do. So pretty *_*





I know everybody and their mom has done Calorimetry, but I wanted to give it a shot too! :P I love how it turned out! I knit this twice actually, before I finally went and read everyone's comments about how it came out huge! So I CO 88 sts and knit this up while I watched Steamboy. Very good anime.





Here are pictures of my 2x2 Rib Scarf. Incredibly boring and mindless, but good for at work when I want to knit but the chats are heavy. I love this colour! I'm a big teal fan.




And last but not least, my tiny start on the Meseta Alta Shawl! With help from a lovely lady on Ravelry I was able to start this and I know where I'm going with it now! I'm a little worried about the bumpiness of some areas, but I hope a soak and block will take that out a bit.. *crosses fingers*

I'm also really concerned about gauge for this one.. The pattern calls for US9, Ravelry says US8 and the yarn itself says US6.. so I'm not sure which size to use at all, so this may be time for some swatches. The yarn is Sirdar Eco Wool DK which is absolutely gorgeous! Very soft and the colour is amazing exactly the same as the link).

Why am I still awake?

So I just spent the last 2 hours fixing up my layout.. and before that I spent the whole day getting level 41-50 in WoW! :P I'm such a friggin nerd... In any case, here's a toque I made a month or so ago, thought I'd share. My wonderful lover Alex is modeling in the second pic *heart*

There's actually two versions of this hat.. I still didn't get gauge when I knit this and it was my first time knitting in the round, so it was like.. trial and error. This yarn is sort of on the thinner side of worsted so the first hat I knit turned out too small even though I added two repeats of the cable section. It stretched a bit, but not enough to fit my head. Adrian ended up putting it on Joey's head, sort of perched on there, so we called him prison-snitch-Joey all day. :D

I made a second one and CO 106 sts. I did the ribbing for about 1¼” and repeated the cable pattern 7 times. The second one knit up much faster and I did a way better job on it the second time around. It came out perfect! It fits my head and Alex's, so it should fit my brother (I knit it for his Christmas present).

If I have time I’m going to make a matching scarf. I wrote out my own pattern for a scarf by adapting the hat pattern, and then I found out there's one that's exactly the same! So Irish Hiking scarf here I come...

It’s a really nice hat actually, I’m surprised at how good it looks, especially for only spending $3.00 on a skein that worked up two full hats!