A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

Wow! Another week into 2004 already!

So how was your weekend?

We finally got some “warmer” weather, it was up near freezing the past couple of days. The pipes have thawed, the furnace is running (it only acts up in extreme cold), and the buns have returned to the hallway.

Knitting update:

I managed to catch up to where I should be on the shawl. The edging is finished and I spent an entire afternoon picking up the 365 stitches the length of it for the border. After a couple of false starts I managed to get 3.5 rows of the chart for the border completed. I think the thing slowing me down the most is how carefully I have to watch each row of the chart and all the counting of stitches. Its definately slower going than most of the projects I’ve done in the past. I hope to finish through row 6 tonight, but we’ll see.

I also finished the hat that I was working on as a belated holiday gift for a friend of ours. Nothing fancy, just a plain worsted weight hat with a ribbed band. He’s a pretty basic kind of guy. One more thing I can cross off my list.

Knitting Gifts delivered:

Several of the secret projects were delivered on Saturday. I had made socks for two of my cousins, they are 7 and 12, and they loved them. Lucky thing is that they actually fit. One was a little bit big, but her feet are growing fast so no worries there. I also had a couple of hats that I had made a while back that were hanging around and happened to fit them. I haven’t met a kid yet that couldn’t use an extra hat, especially in this weather. Their brother got knee and elbow pads for rollerblading and they all got a slightly used video game system that had been collecting dust for a while now. I’d like to make the brother a hat too so I’ll try to start that tonight if possible.

Spinning:

I haven’t done any new spinning the past few days but since I’m already 1/2 way through this weeks fiber I’m not too worried. I may take the wheel out tomorrow night but since I’m going to group on Thursday, it might be Friday night before I get back to it again. I’d like to get ahead a bit on the shawl yarn and use the other set of bobbins to play with some of the other fiber I have around the house. I still haven’t tried doing anything in a 4-ply and I’d really like to give it a try and see how it comes out.

Guess that is all for now. Time to get back into the swing of work, not the easiest thing after 4 days away.

Just checking in kinda quickly.

Things have finally warmed up a bit with temps closer to freezing and only going down into the teens so the buns are headed back into the hallway.

I’ve done a little more on the shawl, I just finished repeat #16 so I’m behind schedule on that already. I should be able to finish this edging tonight if I stay focused. And I am ahead of schedule on the spinning! I’ve also almost finished that hat I’m making for a friend and I did a few more rounds on the sock earlier today so those should be finished later this week.

Well back to work. I’ll try to post tomorrow if I have a chance, otherwise next update on Tuesday.

Are we there yet?

Okay, so today was not a whole lot of fun. I wound up staying home due to a furnace that wouldn’t stay on and some frozen pipes. We caught them before they could burst but decided someone needed to be here to restart the $*$^% thing so the house would have some heat. Even with me restarting it 4 times over the course of the day, the temp in here remained a chilly 62 for most of the day.

I’ve been walking around in 4 layers, my typing mitts and a wool at all day! A couple of hours ago I baked a cake, just because baking has a way of warming things up, and I’m attempting bread, if it will rise in this temp!

Things have warmed up outside now so it has warmed up inside as well and I’m fine without the hat and mitts so no need to worry about tonight. It sure was a chilly day though.

The good news is I did get some spinning done in between cups of hand-warming tea and I’ve now finished not only this weeks ounce of fiber but 1/2 of next weeks as well! I’m ahead of schedule!!!!

I’m headed off to work on the shawl now, as I’m not ahead of schedule on that and I have to do it during the early part of the evening while I’m most awake. Perhaps I’ll even get in a sleeve on that baby sweater before bed tonight. I’ll keep you posted.

Stay warm!

Ahh!!!!

I had a nice long post for you and blogger had an error when I tried to post and lost it all!

Son of a . . . .

an attempt at recreating what blogger just lost on me:

Weather report:

Its a whole 1? outside right now!!!!

Okay, this just isnt’ fun anymore. I want to go to a tropical island and sip drinks with the little umbrellas in them! oh, well! That isn’t going to happen so I guess I’ll just turn up the space heater and get another cup of coffee!

What are you doing to stay warm?

Our furnace has decided to play games, it keeps shutting off and not coming back on by itself. It only restarts if you go down and do a little dance and press buttons. Not much fun, esp. at 4:00 in the morning which seems to be its favorite time to stop working, 2 night in a row now! It sure doesn’t take long for a room to cool to the low 60s or upper 50s in this weather! YUCK!!!

Knitting update:

I did two repeats of the lace edging last night. It would have been more, but I got distracted and messed it up somewhere and couldn’t figure out what I had done so I backtracked one stitch at a time until I found a row that was right and then redid that repeat. Very slow going. I also made a photocopy enlargement of the chart which seems to help, much easier to see the little squares and count them out. I’ll be doing the same with the other charts as I go. The first piece of edging is now 1/2 done and the goal for this week is to finish it by Saturday and start the border on Sunday. If I can do 2 repeats tonight, 3 on Friday night and 4 on Saturday I should be able to get it done. Then next week with the border the goal will be to do 6 rows on Sunday and another 6 on Monday since I have the day off which will leave 6 to do the rest of the week. If I do 2 rows each Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I should be finished early and be able to work on mittens and hats etc.

I’m also working on the socks from the trip. I had realized most of the way through the 2nd sock that they were actually a bit too short in the foot so I had ripped out a couple of inches of leg and the heel on the 2nd sock, added about 3/4 of an inch to the foot, and then reknit the heel and the leg. So the 2nd sock is finished. Tuesday I ripped the entire leg of the first sock and the heel and I’ve added the other 3/4 of an inch to that foot and I’m working on the heel of that sock. I’m mostly working on these when I’m at lunch or waiting somewhere but they are going quick so I should be finished with them in a few days. This pair will be my third pair of handknit socks for myself!

Spinning update:

I had written a nice long entry here, but since blogger decided to eat it and I just don’t feel up to rewriting it I’ll keep this short. I worked on the Romney last night for a while, about 45 min. and managed to get almost a 1/4 of an ounce done. I expect to finish spinning this weeks assignment by Friday night. I might even find myself (temporarily) ahead of schedule on this!



Blogging update:

I’ve added some new stuff in the right hand column to track progress on both the shawl and the spinning and some notes on where the New Year’s Resolutions stand. I’ll keep them updated as there is anything to report.