I won!

For those of you who suspect I may have knit Danica just to get a gold medal... well you might be right.



Yay, I'm a winner! I have a beautiful scarf made from stash yarn, and I can finally get back to sock knitting. Well, as soon as I finish this sweater...

D is for...

Dumped



(My newest ABC-along entry.)

Some Knittyboard love

A week or so ago in chat someone mentioned a knit skirt they had made, then had returned to them by the recipient. It sounded like something I might like, so she offered to send it to me! Well I got it today, and it fits! If only it weren't about 10 degrees outside. ;)



I also got my Valentine from MJ today too.

Look, yarn to knit lace (she sent a pattern too, not pictured) and chocolate:



And a chocolate closeup:



I tried the one with the word, chocolate and caramel - yum!

Thanks Knittyboarders, for making me feel so loved today.

I also finished the front of my secret sweater at knitting group.

Olympic success and sleep deprivation...

But it's not a cause and effect relationship.

My PhD program was having it's recruitment "weekend" (really Thursday night through Sunday morning) this week, so I had a houseguest, was barely home, and there was mandatory partying. Thus the sleep deprivation.

On Friday I got the scarf and hat from my ISE partner. I wore them on Saturday, but even my friend Jessica couldn't get a decent picture of me. Something to do with the tiredness of both of us, I would guess. The scarf looked fine, though.



Yes, it's on the diagonal. Yes, we were bored and tired at the time.

And now for Olympic success:



That's my crummy I-live-alone-picture-in-the-bathroom-mirror picture - and I'm not looking much more well-rested or attractive today. But my Danica is DONE DONE and before the end of the Olympics.* I learned a few things.

1. Entrelac is sort of fussy, but it looks cool in the end.

2. Knitting backwards is a good skill to have.

3. Never do a project which requires weaving in eleventy-million ends.

4. The other project will always look more attractive. That's how I finished almost an entire sweater body while I was supposed to be working on Danica.

And now it's time for a nap!

* Slight photo delay due to camera battery issues.

Olympic Progress and more

There's my Danica at the end of Knitsmiths today. I wasn't looking as lovely as I did yesterday, so I cropped me out. ;) There's a little more going behind my neck and over the other shoulder.

Yesterday I didn't bring Danica along, and instead worked on the Conwy sock. I'm now on the heel flap!



I've also picked out yarn for my Sockapaloooza socks, but that will wait until another day.

A day with Polarg and CTHGSY (Chapter 3)

ETA: For those not familiar with CTHGSY, please read Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.

Today I cleaned the apartment a bit, then CTHGSY and I hopped the T down to Newbury Street to meet Polarg for a little shopping. First we hit Newbury Yarns. CTHGSY was a real good guy to put up with that. First off, most guys avoid yarn stores like the plague, and second he's always a little extra nervous that he'll be replaced by some new delicious guy.



We then headed across the street to Beadworks where I bought some beads for Mrs. Beeton and Odessa. After that we were cold and hungry, so we went out for bagels and tasty beverages.



Bagel sandwiches are CTHGSY's favorite food.

All in all a great day, and CTHGSY isn't mad because I stuck to my yarn diet!

Detective Pan

I just arrived home to a swap package. I swapped some Lorna's Laces for this lovely Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn. Also, my swap partner was nice enough to send me some beautiful Brown Sheep roving just because. So I laid it on the bed to take a picture, and this happened:





Yep, nothing that goes on in this apartment escapes his notice. Yesterday when I was assembling my kitchen cart both he and Java were "helping".

On the knitting front:

Last night I took a break from Danica and did another lace repeat on the test sweater. I'm really liking how it's turning out so far. :)

This weekend will hopefully be filled with knitting goodness too.

Sock blockers

I finally bought some sock blockers. Here they are showing off my Jaywalkers:



See, don't they look better that way?

Olympic knitting is going well. I'm on schedule and it's been a long stretch of weekdays, so my extra time on the weekend will put me ahead.

Now I'd better get back to the knitting.

Just in time for Valentine's Day...

I don't often post about non-knitting things on my blog, but this one was just too good to pass up.

Earlier today I read Erica's post about her mom trying to make her get a boyfriend.

I commented:

"Tee hee.

I should go find a boyfriend too, yesterday I had to stand on a chair to hang up a light..."

She replied:

"That's definately a sure sign you're in need of a good, tall, strong man Ariel. So strong men, if you don't fancy me Ariel could use some help with her light bulbs."

It's cracking me up. (OK, maybe it's just really late and I should get to bed. I'll do that now.)

Ready to Jaywalk

Sockalution socks 3/12

Pattern: Jaywalker
Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote in Symphony
Started: 1/11/06
Finished: 2/13/06

They turned out really well, and I really enjoyed knitting this pattern. I'll probably use it again sometime, as I think it really complements yarn with short color blocks.

Edit: Is everyone else getting "Please Republish in 10 minutes"? It's really annoying.

Olympic Update

Well, the ground is covered with snow and I'm stuck inside for the day, so here's my first Olympic progress pic:



Pitiful, huh?

Friday I cast on a knit a bit, but spent all of my at home knitting time Friday evening on a sweater. (Bad girl!)

Yesterday I knit on it a bit more, but then got a phone call from a friend and went out - brought my Jaywalkers for subway knitting.

I've learned that Entrelac is not hard, just fussy. In addition there are about 1,000,000 ends to weave in. (I should have done the Lady Elenor stole, which is much larger but all the same yarn...) I've done all of them so far. If I don't keep up with those ends it will be a diasaster to finish.

The knitting olympics

Only 1 hour and 11 minutes to go for us on Eastern time.

There are over 4000 knitters, but only one Ariel. Yep, that would be me. :) (There is an Ari, an Aria, and a few Ariannes.)

I have the yarn with me here at lab so I can cast on a few token stitches at 2pm. Knitting in earnest begins later.

I realize I haven't talked about it yet (at least I don't think I have) but I'm knitting Danica. It's my first entrelac project and I'm a sucker for new techniques.

It has come to my attention, however, that this is probably not a challenge of Olympic proportions, at least for me. So my unofficial goal is to also finish the sweater I'm test knitting.

Thank you Elspeth!

I came home this evening to find this in my mailbox:



It's two kinds of candy, a card, and some blue star stitch markers (those are the blue dots on top of the card, they're pretty little - perfect for socks!)

Thanks so much Elspeth for the wonderful RAoK. :D

In knitting news, swatched for, cast on, and knit a few rows of a sweater I'm test-knitting tonight. The yarn is Andean Treasure from Knitpicks, which is so soft!

The Jaywalkers are also progressing nicely. I'm done with the gusset, and since I have little short feet that means I'm only about 2 inches away from toe decreases. :)

A "Yay!" and a "Thanks!"

Yay!



Pattern: Whitby from Knitting On the Road
Yarn: Regia cotton sock yarn
Started: January 16th
Finished: February 7

The Whitby socks are done. They look ugly in the picture, but I swear they're pretty on a human. But they're not for me, so I tried them on before I washed them (and forgot to take a picture) and you're getting the washed and ready to send version. These are Sock Savior socks for Sockapaltwoza or whatever the 2nd one was. :)

And now for the "Thanks!"




Danielle sent me this not-quite-so-random RAoK of some beautiful pink angora and adorable stitch markers. The angora is so soft and fluffy, I have to think of something really special to make with it. I've never knit with angora before! Any suggestions?

C is for Coffee

See, it's not for cat. So there!

The waiter (for this lovely coffee is from Trident Cafe) saw me taking this picture and commented. It was pretty funny. We left him a nice tip. :)

Look here - pictures

To distract you from the lack of knitting content lately...

Look, I got a really cute postcard!



Isn't that one of the most adorable things you ever saw?

And here's a some goodies from the lovely Shona:



Pan is trying to claim them for his very own. I tried to get a better pic, but he wouldn't get out of the way!

There's a lovely pen with a sparkley star and some fluff, some shortbread cookies (not pictured), glow-in-the-dark star stickers, and a pillow that says "Star" and has a silver sparkle star, with a matching bag. I'm not sure I've figured out yet what the bag is for but I love everything! Thanks so much! :D

My first ABC-Along post!

I'm a little late, but I'm posting my pictures for A and B, just because.



A is for Arithmetic



B is for Biscotti

Happy Groundhog Day!

And happy birthday to Nicole, if you're reading.

I should have a pair of socks finished shortly. My Jaywalkers are in the gusset, and I haven't worked on them recently because I've been pushing to finish Whitby, which are in the heel flap. Tubey is still in sleeve/back, which is good because I lent out the needles for the body. Good thing I have lots to knit. :)

Last night I went to a baby blanket knitting event at Boston Cares, so I worked on a baby blanket for charity.

Pictures later, I hope.

Welcome to a new month!

I've decided to have monthly resolutions this year. And my resolution for February is to clean for 15 minutes every day. That way I'll get a cleaner apartment without too much agony.

"So," you ask, "what does that have to do with knitting?"

Actually, not much, aside from taking away 15 minutes of potential knitting time. And I'll get to organize my modest stash, comprised almost entirely of sock yarn.

Tonight I'm heading to a charity knitting event with my friend Amanda to knit baby blankets. I've got a nice simple garter one on the needles. :)