Knitting the Blues

It Isn't All About The Grandbaby.....Or How About ANOTHER Hand Knit?

We got a new niece! My girls got a new cousin and Reagan a first cousin once removed, thanks to my brother Sean and his wife, Kristin. She is a cutie and will help make the holidays so much fun from here on in!

She has been rocking the handknits.

With her mumma

Awww, so snuggled in.

Even socks!!

That sweater/hat pattern is one of my favorite patterns. It is so clever, the increases on the top down yoke are tucked in right next to the cables and the decreases on the hat are the same. The pattern itself isn't too tough, but the translation is a little sketchy, so it takes some attention.

• Pattern: Korrigan by Solenn Couix-Loarer (ravelry link)
               le bonnet du korrigan (ravelry link)
               Priscilla's Dream Socks (ravelry link) (adapted for baby feet by me)
• Yarn:  Dream In Color Smooshy with Cashmere in Vague Unease (I love this color!)
• Needles: Ummm.....
• Cast On: May 6, 2014
• Bound Off: May 10, 2014.

This yarn is so soft and cushy, really nice for baby knits.

The blanket above was blogged here. I made this sweater set in a smaller size for Reagan, I'll take up a day of posting with that one later. I really want to make it again, seeing as Reagan out grew hers by the time she was a month or so old, she should have another.

Thirty-four. The holiday music season starts tomorrow at my house! Yay!

First Cousin Once Removed…….The vagaries of family lines

I'm debating how much energy and commitment I have to posting here today. I've a lot to share, but not the enthusiasm to do it all at once, though much of it should be at once. Hard to decide. I'll just get started and see how it goes.

It's all babies around here lately, with my Meg due any second (officially yesterday, we are all on pins and needles at every ringing of the phone, but Shakira-not her real name-seems settled and in a mood to stay put. Her mother is not of the same mind. Haha! Welcome to your first battle of the wills! May it be the first of many that are resolved with the give and take that comes of parent/child relationships, because Shakira is already letting her mom know who the boss of HER is!) and my sister-in-law (my brother's wife) Kristin due in about 7 weeks. Quick, do the math. We hail from a legacy of those who start in on the new generation even while still adding to one that is well established. Meg's first cousin will be younger than her own babe, and while it is a little mind boggling, we've got plenty of history along these family lines. I have first cousins in middle school, for Pete's sake. My uncle is in his seventies. I'll add quickly that my own brother did not wait quite as long and his wife is a young thing, so adorable in her pregnancy.

There have been showers and shopping and preparations, which on my end means a lot of baby knitting. Sweaters, hats, socks, blankets. I think I'll dribble them out over a few days, but what to start with.......

I'm scrolling through all of my photos and so many of them are overlapping, so it seems like I should just post them all, but I'll start with this baby blanket that I made for my new little niece or nephew.

 

• Pattern: Dots Blanket by Debbie O'Neill (this pattern can be purchased singly on the Interweave website)
• Yarn: Classic Elite Yarns Seedling
• Needles: Size 5
• Cast On: May 2, 2014
• Bound Off: May 9, 2014
• Mods: The smallest size is 9x7 squares and I made this one 7x7.

There were many dark, rainy days around the knitting and photographing of these projects. Bummer.

I love this blanket, I really do. And I kinda love the yarn as well. I really wanted to keep this for myself, but managed to get it wrapped and delivered at the shower. The colors seemed to have more contrast to each other in the skein than they do knitted up, so I added a couple of random green squares to pull the green of the smaller squares out a little bit. The colors are quiet and the blanket has a warm, soothing aura about it. As for the knitting? Mitred squares are like potato chips, you can't take just one, which is probably why the thing gets done at all. While there are no seams at the end, you can end up with a lot of yarn ends to weave in, so I tried to knit in any that I could as I went along and at the end of each new row I took a rest from the knitting to tackle the resulting ends and while I am not one that cries aloud at the injustice and pain of weaving in ends (part of the process, no?) it was nice to get to the end and only have a few more to go and the blocking to wrap things up. 

The one thing that threw me off my game a little (keeping me up late, er, early into a morning a couple of days before the shower) was the amount of time for the border. Somehow in my head I imagined just picking up stitches and quick! Garter stitch border! Done! A few hours! 

no.

At one point there was time to adapt the border by leaving out a row or two, but I didn't listen to my own best judgement and went ahead doing ALL the rows. Stupid girl. I knew it had to be finished in plenty of time for the blocking, especially during those humid, rainy days. I made it. Whew. And with a little bitty sweater to go with it.

Yes, I did have to take the sweater back to add buttons, but the baby isn't due until July! And the sweater is a 6 month size! Plenty of time!

I just might have proof that it is all finished up waiting to share here. Meanwhile, there are photos on my ravelry project page that may not have made it here.

Maybe tomorrow I'll share the baby shower. It was so cute!

Seventeen. I just noticed the Disqus Comments invitation on the top of my posting page. Who uses it? Should I? What do you like? What is annoying?

 

Olympic, er, Ravellenic Knitting Update

SOCHI, RUSSIA (via Knitting the Blues couch): The ravthlete at Knitting the Blues enters the second week of competition a little behind in the standings. While the grey blob is completed and not part of the competition, it did hinder her ability to focus on the task at hand so the purply-pink blob, her entry into the games, has suffered. Added to that is the fact that KTB took an entire day of knitting off, just watching the time slipping by and all the time thinking that this is not what she trained for. Total procrastination. Okay, there may be a significant body of evidence that would prove that maybe she did train, good and hard and has achieved a certain mastery as a matter of fact, for any event involving procrastination and as soon as there is an Olympic event, she assures this reporter that she will go for the gold. In any case, the following day was spent away from her venue and out in the world taking care of other commitments.

Although it has been a rough start for the knitter, she has said that she is back in it to win it and hopes to make up time this week. To that end she spent a good amount of the weekend in active participation, watching Olympic Ice Hockey (go USA!) and Figure Skating. Those sports can be particularly distracting, but during other sports she seems to surge ahead on the lace blob.

"Yes, the grey blob was a lot easier to work on because, you know, garter stitch. I didn't have to look at the work and it went quickly. Knitting from lace charts that don't repeat themselves takes a little more concentration than probably would have been recommended for competition, but I've been training in lace knitting for years and can fall back on that training to get my fingers and mind in the right place competitively speaking."

There have been a few setbacks though. They involve the technical part of the event and while her choices may not have been made by all, she stands by them. The pattern she is working suggests beginning with a provisional cast on with double pointed needles, but she had circular needles to hand and went with magic-loop and made a tactical error when she worked the set up section from the written instructions instead of the charted ones. She knows from her vast experience that visual cues work better for her and this decision cost her, there were many yarn overs missed and picked up a couple of rows later. Unfortunately, this resulted in some tight and tiny holes, but she continued on.

"I'm not worried, because really. Who will notice them at all when the most adorable grand baby in the world is wrapped up in it? Makes you wonder why bother with anything fancy at all, but that is what knitters do."

Once that chart was completed she was instructed to put the knitting on a 16" circular needle, which she doesn't own and doesn't like, but the magic loop was not going well either, costing her precious seconds on the clock. In an unprecedented (not really) move KTB decided to go with two longer circular needles, a method she is very comfortable with, but she was anxious to move onto one circular needle in the round.

"What a relief when I finally got to that place! Even though I work well with the methods mentioned, they can be fiddly and I was thrilled to get onto one needle and start making up time! Pride went before the fall though and I made a huge tactical error. The two circs that I was using were different lengths and had contrasting cord colors. Let's name them RC, which carried the stitches of the first half on them and BC, which held the second half. Maybe it was a burst of adrenaline when the moment finally came, but after a few rows of knitting on the one needle I realized something was very wrong with my sled, uh, I mean knitting. I won't get into the knitty gritty of it, but after losing many minutes to trying to figure out what the heck had gone wrong and wondering why none of my usual fixes were getting my skis back on course making it right it hit me like a rogue bobsled! When I switched to one needle I worked across RC and then knitted the stitches from BC onto RC, but distraction and lack of awareness in the moment (which is what distraction IS!), I marked the beginning of the round at the half way point. No really, did you hear that? I marked the beginning of the round in the wrong spot. At the half-way around spot. So I knitted one row once around and then again half way around, beginning the next row at the half way point of the work. Had I been paying attention to my knitting and not Women's Luge I never would have made that mistake. I owe it all to my training that I was able to get back on track in the time I did, only tinking back a row was necessary, but a couple did have to go and a tink back of another half sort of in the middle of the work."

She went on to say that this, of course, happened late in the night and she stayed up later than she wanted, fixing the error and finding her footing. She has been careful to get the rest required for this vigorous event and hopes this isn't too much of a setback. After two more days of this grueling Olympic long event, she is digging deep, making good progress and should be able to catch up to the competition and back into medal contention.

"I just have to be more in the moment, less distracted by the glitter and noise of the Olympics and focused on what I know I am capable of. I just want to know that when this is all over that I've done my best, not only on this project, but in balancing it with the rest of my life. In the end it isn't about this medal, but about having appreciation for my entire journey and looking forward to life after the Ravellenics."

Eleven. Can you tell I've been listening to a lot of Olympic athlete's interviews? Heh. Now, if I could just stop knitting past my obviously contrasting in color and size stitch marker without noticing and changing it up for the next round.........

I've Been Training My Entire Life For This MomentAnd You're Gonna Hear Me Roar!

Tomorrow is the big day and the question that begs to be answered is this: How did a person who by and large was about to ignore the ravelry joining thing altogether end up being a team captain?

Somebody is going to pay for this (Lisa) (boxerknits on ravelry, just so y'all know).

JUST KIDDING. I'm more excited about this than I would have thought I could be, we have a small team (feel free to join), but what we lack in membership we make up in.... yarn? Yarns have been wound, project pages made, knitting needles sharpened. We're ready!

Alright. Enough of that talk. I'm starting to sound like a cheerleader. My teeth hurt from all that sweetness and light! I almost cast on this morning thinking that the opening ceremonies were tonight (Thursday), but luckily, after winding my yarn into balls and printing out my pattern I realized that nobody seemed to be casting on yet. There were no joint cheers or countdowns... Yikes! So Friday morning at 11 it is, although, I feel as if anybody started tonight they get a pass because there is actually Olympic competition that started today. I missed it though, did we win anything?

That is my Ravellenics project. I might not post much about it here, because I want there to be some surprises for Baby Beagan, but you ravelry people can keep track of my progress on the project page. (See! I told you I was ready!) I'll try to remember to take progress photos along the way.

And of course, I'm not done with the grey thing. Ugh.

Eight. Speaking of the Olympics coverage, what is up with Bob Costas' eye? Eww. I hope he isn't in one of those hotels with tea colored water that you aren't supposed to use on your face and then caught something really creepy from it and it spreads to his other eye and then down his cheeks to his lips and into his ears...... But wait. It is Bob Costas after all. I mean.... I wouldn't actually WISH anything bad on him, but let's just say I wouldn't miss him. I'd like Meredith Vieira in his spot a whole heck of a lot better!

 

There's A Whole Lot of Blue in This PostEven For Me

My annual summer pedicure photo is long overdue.  I know, I KNOW!  Those photos look the same every.single.year.  Some variation of blue toenails with water and/or sand.  Here it is anyway.

Look! A blue ice pack!  Nice!

Yes.  I am officially on the DL.  I don't want to talk about it, but I do.  Talk: yes.  Type?  No.  Call me.

It's a blue camouflage job!

One of those toe(nail)s is not like the others.....

Another toenail bites the dust.  That toenail has no integrity left.  The number of infections and losses that toenail has sustained has me wondering why on earth it ever grows back again.  The indominable spirit of the big toe and its nail.  I didn't do too bad a job of painting it on (yes I did my own pedicure, not taking any chances with the compromised toenail), it has been bare and only just partially grown in for weeks, while the other nails had been painted so it stuck out like a sore thumb big toe.  Now when I look down at my sandled feet (and ignore the swelling of the ankle, probably shouldn't be wearing the flip-flops) I smile a little.

Knitting.  Still working on the blue shawl.  I have taken a bit of contract work, more than I should have, so things might not move as quickly as I will want them to, but I am  working on stuff and will share what I can.  I also started an afghan and I have a LOT to say about it.  Rather, a lot of knitterly drama has ensued and I'll have to share.  

It all started when I saw the pattern for picnic (ravelry link), an afghan of squares knitted in Rowan Denim.  I resisted for a short while for two reasons.  My wrists hate knitting cotton and to knit this baby in Rowan Denim is a significant financial investment (it takes something like 70ish balls of yarn, you do the math).  So I just bought the book, you know, to just look at the afghan, but not to knit it.  Then I started toying with the idea that Elann Den-M-Nit (no link-that is part of the story) could work at probably about 60% of the cost. That is a number I pulled out of thin air.  It might be 60%, it might be 75%, it might be 50%.  Whatever it is, it is a lot less than Rowan Denim, I promise.  Anyway, picnic calls for dark denim blue, medium denim blue and cream (or ecru or whatever you want to call it).  Both the Rowan and Elann yarns are (or have been) offered in three blues, dark, mid and light indigos, but when I started collecting the yarns to knit this Elann had no dark indigo available so I decided that the mid and light indigos would be different enough to work.  As I stashed them they looked a little too close in shade, but I was sure they would be fine.  That is a detail to remember later as I was swimming in DA river NILE, but I'm going to continue the drama chronilogically.

These blues will work together, right?

SO!  I had stashed enough of the blues (mid and light-DA NILE) and some of the ecru from Elann and through some ravelry trades (this really brings the discount over the Rowan closer to the 60%.  Maybe even 50%!) and found when I went to purchase the rest of the ecru from Elann that they were all sold out and not restocking it at this time.  WHAT!?  I head over to check the stashes of ravelers and find that nobody has any ecru up for sale or trade.  FUDGE!  In the interest of keeping you from being totally bored to tears, I put up an In Search Of thread on some raverly groups and somebody sold me their ecru!  Yay!  Mostly.  When it arrived I found that it was the earlier put up of the yarn and it is ever so slightly different from the more current put up, a little thicker.  Yes!  All of the wrapper information is the same, but I can tell, it isn't exactly the same.  I decided that I could live with that and that for as long as I am able I will use the slightly thicker on plain squares and the other when I am using more than one color in a square.  Excellent!  I cast on.

See?  Different, but a little the same. Huh. (Blue labels)

I chose to knit the squares into strips to reduce the amount of seaming that I will have to do.  There is probably a really good reason not to, especially with this heavy yarn, but I'm not changing my mind.  (Unless someone convinces me, but it would take a lot, I have some squares finished and all joined in a strip.)  Because there are beads involved and I haven't made a decision on those yet (another post), I chose a strip that has no beaded squares and got to work.

First square. See the pretty blue afghan?  I just realized that the photo has only 45 of the 81 squares. They didn't even finish it for the book! That worries me.

I finished the first square (ecru) and started knitting the second out of the two blues and found that my initial instinct was correct.  There is barely any contrast AT.ALL.  Crap.  I have all of this yarn and nobody on ravelry has any of the dark up for sale or trade.  Must this shit always happen to me?  Apparently, yes.

Blues?  Blue?  Blues?

Longer story shortened:  The day after I start messaging a few people on ravelry to see if they will be willing to let go of their stash a person who turned me down was on the alert when another raveler put some up for sale in a For Sale or Trade group.  She let me know immediately and I snagged it.  It wasn't all I needed, but it was a start.  I continued to beg message other people and another raveler kindly traded what she had for some stuff I had available for sale or trade.  Excellent!  I have almost enough, or maybe definitely enough, but I'm still trolling for a few insurance balls.  Breathing easy when nearing the end of a project of this size will definitely be a plus.

Blues!

So now I am on a roll, but really.  Who designs a striped square with a 4 rows by 3 rows striping sequence?  Honestly!  All of those ends to weave in.  My ingenuity kicked in and I decided that since I am knitting on a circular needle that when I reached the end of a stripe and the new stripe color was at the other side of the work that I would slide the piece across the needle and start from that side.  Yippee!  No extra ends.  I keep knitting and then get to another striped square, SAME! THING!  With the added twist of alternating colors in alternating stripes.  Seriously.  I'm working it the same way.  This is of course screwing up my slip the first stitch of every row for easier seaming thing, but I'm just ignoring it.  BLAH, BLAH, BLAH! I can't HEAR YOU little voice in my head.  NOT LISTENING!

Square #4!  More blue!

IF A CERTAIN PERSON I AM MARRIED TO IS STILL READING (no worries, he rarely reads this blog-I bore him, but even if he did start reading this post I am sure I lost him somewhere around the paragraph that began Knitting) DON'T READ PAST THIS POINT!!!!!

Everybody else can click through.

Blue MondayThe Blue Handles Edition

I'm sitting here deciding what to write first, typing a few words and then deleting, typing, deleting.  Sometimes I want to post and have stuff to say, but I just can't figure out where to start, what to include, what to save, what to skip.  The safe way to start, on a knitting blog at least, is with a finished knit.

Remember this?  Wait, I don't think I actually posted that anywhere, so hey!  Look at that!  That is a bag that I knitted and felted for the Ravelympics.  I finished it and lined it, but the handles came a little late. 

The blue handles are from Homestead Heirlooms.  I love them.

The photo shoot occurred at CT Sheep & Wool and this bag is almost the perfect bag for a festival.  While I made only one purchase, a skein of yarn, I could have fit a small fleece in here had I wanted to.  Even if I set some random rule to limit stash additions to what I can fit in the bag, I could still come away with a lot of stuff.  Of course there is a down side to that, my back will tell you.  It is a pretty heavy bag when empty, add my stuff and it can really weigh me down.  Finding my wallet or phone is a challenge as well, which might just save me some money!  The size of it can also keep me out of some crowded booths because I take up all of the space.

• Pattern: Decarhombi Bag by Kristi Schueler at Fiber Fool
• Yarn: J. Knits Dreamy Bulky
• Needles: size 15 (OUCH!)
• Cast on: March 28, 2009
• Bound Off: February 28, 2010
• Completed UFO for the Ravelympics

This pattern is so much fun to knit, I plan on another for sure. I even have the yarn. The super-sizing, while fine now because it is a distant memory, was the only problem I had. The pattern calls for worsted weight yarns with long color repeats, but I found this yarn in those great colors on sale and thought it would make a great felted bag (and I do have a weakness for those!), so I pulled out the size 15 needles and went to town. I think I really owned those!  Weird. By the end of it my hands were KILLING ME!!!!! The thing is, there is no seaming at the end, and you know what that means. About half way through the knitting it starts to get heavy and you just keep picking up stitches to add mitred squares on those huge needles, the whole thing just keeps getting heavier and heavier until you end up with this:

 

I love the construction of this bag, it has an origami feel to it and with no seaming it is a fun knit. "Lining?" you ask. Did you doubt it?

The fabric was living in my stash, purchased for what reason?  I couldn't tell you, but I'm glad I had it.  It adds whimsy to it, don't you think?

 

Thanks again to Sally for hosting my favorite day of the week, Blue Monday!

Well, there you have it.  I have tons more to say, not limited to, but including all of the crazy knitting that has been going on around here, how I have been cruising through blogland and a lightning speed, rarely slowing down to comment because I have so.much.KNITTING to do!  My knitting, contract knitting, some gift knitting.  I really want to comment and promise I will, but thanks to all of you for still stopping by here despite the fact that I am a bit of a negligent member of this community!

2010.  Fifty-one.  And thanks to Cheryl for taking the photos!  She can make a girl's bag look good!

Blue MondayThe Cozy Teapot Edition

The Ravelympic projects are rolling out, they are done, but the photo-ops have been few and spending the weekend away did much for inspiration, stash and queue addition, but not for getting my ravelry and blog updated.  Luckily, I have a few days to actually post them finished to count toward my medals.  Whew.

I'm a little tired of being overwhelmed by the stash and the starts.  The Olympic challenge was the perfect vehicle to encourage myself to take a look at things that I was so passionate about at the start and for whatever reasons were shoved aside.  Two straight weeks of taking stock and finishing up.

This cozy is pictured in The Knitter's Book of Yarn and I had always wondered why there wasn't a full on photo of it.  There are two pictures, one from an angle and another a close-up of the lining.  Now, I admit to rushing through finishing, but was pretty dismayed when this is what I got:

Yuck.

I don't know if the designer had this problem when she had it knit (I have been involved with knitting for photo shoots and it just may be that getting this together was really a time issue and creative photography was needed to cover up some things, that's all I'm sayin'.  I could be WAY WRONG! so don't take this as truth, just an educated guess), but I was trying really hard to live with it the way it was and I just couldn't.  The problem was that I had seamed it, attached the i-cord, picked up the stitches for and knitted the bottom border AND sewn on the i-cord trim on the bottom before i decided I hated it.  I had two issues, one was my yarn choice, I used Manos instead of Malabrigo and Manos is less smooth, a very think and thin yarn.  The other was, I didn't want to reknit a bit of it.  I had been very careful to center the i-cord when I attached it, but not so careful distributing the rows of the i-cord on each side.  When I counted I found a pretty big discrepancy on that distribution, so I decided to cut away the yarn attaching the i-cord on one side (leaving it attached at the base) and re-do it. 

Snip.  The resulting fix isn't as perfect as I would like, but it is an improvement, and since I did it about five times I was ready to give up and live with it. 

I'll just set it at an angle every time I use it.  AHAHAHAHAHAHA!  ha.

From the start I knew I didn't have enough of the blue yarn and maybe not enough of the green to line the cozy, so I decided to line with with fabric.  I know it is only lining and I could have used any colors, but I love fabric and knew that would be fun.  When I saw the cozy next to one of my Wee Bunny Project Bags I knew what line I wanted the fabric to come from.  Long story short and Woolen Rabbit to the rescue, I have a lining (and the lining is interlined as well, nice and warm and well, cozy).

 

• Pattern: Cabled Tea Cozy by Jennifer Hagan in The Knitter's Book of Yarn.
• Yarn: Manos del Uruguay Wool Clasica
• Needles: Heh. Funny story, one side in 8 and one side in 7. I figured it out when I was finished. I was not.happy. I blocked the hell out of the smaller size.
• Cast on: January 20, 2008.
• Bound off: February 21, 2010.
• Finally lined and finished: February 28, 2010.

Yay!  I really do love it, flaws and all.

2010.  Thirty-five.  Yay!

Blue Monday

A personal blast from the past is my contribution to Blue Monday this week.  Some long time readers and friends of my ramblings will remember this project. 

This is truly one of the most used and loved projects that my knitting has produced. 

It is a perfect size, and while I originally thought it would be a knitting or spinning bag it has turned out to be the bag I carry all winter long as my daily pocketbook or purse (which do you call it, pocketbook or purse?  My mom always called it a pocketbook, so it is the word that usually pops into my head first).

Thanks to the lining and leather handles it is really sturdy and the pockets hold lots of little things like my lip balms, tissues, keys, phone and all of the flotsam and jetsam that ends up in a bag on a daily basis.  All of that and there is still room for a project bag or two.

Well, you have to know, nothing is perfect.  This bag is, for some reason, the most noticed of all my hand-knits as well.  I cannot go anywhere without it garnering attention.  It would be fine if it was just the occasional, "Hey, love your bag!!"  That I could handle.  But, you knoooow, when you are out and just want to look at yarn or fabric or groceries, and you are hoping to do it in the solitude of your own head and people talking to you can be annoying?  That is when the bag is a leeetle bit of a hindrance.  It always encourages conversation.  "Did you make it?"  "Is it felted?"  "How did you do it?"  "How long did it take?"  "Ooooh, you lined it!"  "How did you line it?"  "How did you attach the handles?"  "Where did you get the handles?"  "Susie!  Come look at her bag!  She made it!"  "Is it crocheted?" and my personal favorite, "You should sell those!"  And while I love to share, sometimes I really have to think before I actually take it out of the car with me.  These are always followed up with compliments, the funniest are from the people who know nothing about me and tell me I did a great job, as if it is my first knitting attempt.  heh.    "Keep it up, you did a great job!"  Oh, I don't know if I will.  This knitting thing......

Ahhh, you noticed.  Okay, yeeesssss, that is another Wee Bunny Bag from Woolen Rabbit, but I had to do it.  Just look at how that sock matches it!  Like I said, a matching bag for every project*.

Because I threatened promised:

Oh, before I forget.  The Olympics are coming!  I love the Olympics, I'm clearing as much of my schedule as I can so that I can watch the thrill of victory and all that.  I'm thinking that I might join the Ravelympics, but I don't have a team!  Oh!No!  I think I know what event or events that I am going to enter and I've been in training since the beginning of the year.  I'm thinking this is the perfect SMACK!down vehicle.  Has anybody else signed up?  Joined a team?  Let me know, it could be fun.  Well, I'll have fun either way, but company will make it funner more fun. 

2010. Seventeen.  *No wonder that I worry that I am an episode of Hoarders waiting to happen.  More on that in the near future. 

Whew! For A Second There I Thought Typepad Was Going To Thwart My Push To The End Of The Year!

Thank goodness, after several attempts to log in, here I am.  With nothing to say.  We had a busy day of socializing, a brunch at my house to celebrate my mom's birthday, my brothers hanging out to watch the last Patriot's game of the season, then off to the annual sushi night at Cyndi's house.  Yutaka really outdid himself this year, and the food was fabulous.  Honestly, the best sushi I have ever had anyplace.  As if that wasn't enough, the company was quite bearable, we had a great time.  Then there is that moment, at 11:15 p.m., on the way home, not a photo of sushi taken that I panic and realize that as tired as I am I still have to post.  So here it is. 

We went out.  We had sushi.  It was great. 

 Three to go.  The end.

Oh, alright. I do have one other thing that popped into my consciousness today.  This afghan (ravelry link).  I must have it.  I really have that "I want it now and I am obsessed with it already" feeling about me, but there are problems that just come along with that way of thinking to begin with, and then the sheer size of the project which can put a damper into any grand schemes of immediate gratification.  The other problem is Margene.  I can feel her head shaking from here.  As much as I can just about feel my wrists and hands and arms aching over the knitting with the Rowan Denim.  I know I could make it out of another yarn, but really.  In my mind it would always be the "almost was" the afghan I wanted and not exactly what I wanted.  In my delusional attachment to this afghan, in this yarn I have already worked out some coping schemes.  The best one (have somebody else knit one and gift it to me) won't work, I don't think.  But, maybe if I only knit one square, maybe two each week and keep myself well-rested and strong and hydrated I could get through it in about a year.  It's a plan that might work.  Fortunately I don't have any Rowan Denim in..the...house at the...moment.........wait!........maybe there was some left over from this skirt...........

THREE TO GO!  Have I cast on yet or not?  You'll have to wait and see.......