Knitting Olympics: Day Fourteen

Project: Thrummed Mitts
Progress: Done baby! Gimme the GOLD!
To Go: None! Nada! Zilch! I'm done!
Activities other than knitting done on day: Knitted on Sesame incessently, searched for needles to do the shrug, couldn't find them. Went out to dinner at Taco Bell ( Had a Chicken Crunch Wrap and Fries Supreme...Fat City but I'm almost over my cold, so it was a reward for my wellness. I realize the irony in that one). Rented Lady and the Tramp (but forgot our VCR's busted) and Transporter 2- good movie!
Total hours of knitting: two at the most. I spend more time fiddling with those damn fleeces.
Photo: Gotta have proof, so here it is:

Ta Da! Two mittens, both alike in dignity.

The Right

The Left

A close up of the cute little fleece v's.

Mahoot quite likes them!
Medals Won By Canada: 5 Gold, 8 Silver, 6 Bronze. Slowly, but surely, we're getting some medals.
Other knitting I did: Finished Sesame's back!

It's the biggest part of the cardigan, so the rest should be a breeze, right? right? I'm actually dreading the collar. And the buttonhole band. Both make my head spin!

Mahoot approves of Sesame too!

Knitting Olympics: Day Thirteen

Project: Thrummed Mitts
Progress: 1 complete mitten, ALL of the body on the second.
To Go: The thumb! Also, fluffing the fleece. Shouldn't be more than 2 hours.
Activities other than knitting done on day: Again, vegging on the couch with a cold.
Total hours of knitting: two maybe? I knit while watching the Men's Hockey Team get trounced by Russia 2 to 0. So Canada's out of the finals. The women just made it look so easy.
Photo: Too sick. Nuff said.
Medals Won By Canada: 5 Gold, 8 Silver, 5 Bronze. The female speed skaters kick ass!
Other knitting I did: Working digilently on Sesame. I'll soon be done the armhole shaping and on to the neck and shoulder shaping. But I need to start that damn shrug!

Knitting Olympics: Day Twelve

Project: Thrummed Mitts
Progress: 1 complete mitten, start of the 3rd fleece repeat (5 rows of thrumming) on the second. I'm now past the thumb, it's on a stitch holder.
To Go: 2 or 3 more fleece repeats, or 4 in. left of the mitten body. Then the thumb, and then fluffing the fleece!
Activities other than knitting done on day: I am struck down with a horrid cold, so I've been knitting on the couch, watching tv and having naps, eating a bit. Nothing fun, really.
Total hours of knitting: an hour or two of the actual knitting, a half hour of making thrums. And I've knit like mad on my Sesame cardigan. I'm at the armhole decreases already. I have another shrug to knit up...haven't started. Must finish this mitten!
Photo: None, again. I'm too sick to bother.
Medals Won By Canada: 5 Gold, 7 Silver, 5 Bronze. I think that's the count that was predicted by "olympic experts" that we would win. Hopefully there's still more to come!
Woman's Hockey: WE WON GOLD!!!!!!!!!!! We beat Sweden 4 to 1 in the gold medal match! yay! That brings goals for to like, 44, and against, 2! The men's team don't get it so easy. Right now, they're in 3rd placing. I hope the get gold, but hey, who knows?

Knitting Olympics: Day Eight

Project: Thrummed Mitts
Progress: 1 complete mitten, a few rounds of the cuff on the second
To Go: 1 whole mitten less a few rounds of cuff. I'm not a total slacker though. I just had a lot of other stuff going on. This week was the week before "Spring Break" (Reading Week as my profs call it), so I had papers, assignments and tests to do. Yay school!
Activities other than knitting done on day: Met with my Creative Procees profeesor to discuss my creative project (a short story ah-thank you), visited my yarn dealer seller and got some yarn for my secret pal (shh!), a ball of Katrina for my silky tie wrap, and a ball for a project that I *ahem* haven't disclosed yet. Then started said project while watching episodes of Life As We Know It (It's good, Kelly Osbourne is surprisingly great...I love teenage dramas. But NOT the OC...bleeeeechhhhh!)
Total hours of knitting: hmm, maybe 15 minutes? My heart just wasn't in it.
Photo: None for the mittens, but....um, I did get around to finishing that shrug I mentioned...

and a matching purse....

and then I started this sweater (In Old Rose, Dark Natural Mix, Maize and Chesnut Brown in Patons Classic Wool, of course)....

Ok, so I'm an Olympic Slacker. Shame on me.
Medals Won By Canada: 2 Gold, 4 Silver, 5 Bronze. That's like, 3rd place in the standings!
Woman's Hockey: Canada 6, Finland 0. Oh, and Canada 8, Sweden 1. Yeah, it's 38 goals for and 1 against. I <3 you women's team.

Knitting Olympics: Day Three

Project: Thrummed Mitts
Progress: 1 complete mitten! Finishing completed, too!
To Go: 1 whole mitten! with 13 days to go!
Activities other than knitting done on day: Went to work at a construction site. I'm a security guard, so I knit on the job. No one was around, so I got lots of time to myself!
Total hours of knitting: about 6, but that counts weaving in ends and fluffing all the fleece out. So, I can fiish one of these mittens in 10 hours. not bad!
Photo: This mitten is so stuffed with fleece, but insanely warm. I'll forgive that it makes my hand look like it has elephantitus. I love how the fleece V's look like hearts. aww. Here's the outside:

And the inside:

Medals Won By Canada: 1 Gold, 1 Bronze
Woman's Hockey: Canada 12, Russia 0. We Canadian women kick ASS! And yes, both medals are won by women, too.

Knitting Olympics: Day Two

Project: Thrummed Mitts
Progress: 4in. of4 in. 1x1 ribbed cuff, 1 repeat of fleece pattern (2 thrummed rows)
To Go: 1 whole mitten, 1 whole mitten less cuff and 1 repeat of fleece pattern.
Activities other than knitting done on day: Went to work at the Public Archives.
Total hours of knitting: less than 2.
Photo: The photo was hastly taken while my transport waited for me downstairs! So, it's horrible!
Medals Won By Canada: 1 Gold
Woman's Hockey: Canada 16, Italy 0. WOW.

Knitting Olympics: Day One

Project: Thrummed Mitts
Progress: 2 in. of 4 in. 1x1 ribbed cuff
To Go: 1 whole mitten, 1 whole mitten less 2" of cuff.
Activities other than knitting done on day: Watched the opening ceremonies, grocery shopped, made potato skins and fried pepperoni, watched Law and Order and CSI.
Total hours of knitting: less than 2.
Photo: sorry, none today. Besides, it's a 1x1 rib cuff. very boring.

Knitting Olympics away!

Well, the olympics are starting in a few hours, and I'm all ready to start my thrummed mittens. I'm using this pattern, with some hints for Yarn Harlot's site to keep me going, and Patons Classic Wool in Too Teal, and Patons Up Country in Soft Cream for the fleece. It'll take some fluffing up after I'm done, but it should be just as cozy as good old roving :) It's also been discontinued, so good luck finding it!
I've swatched the thing, flat though, so the thrums weren't turning out the best. But, once I get it started in the round, it should go more smoothly.
Once I figure out how to set up my webcam on my new computer (the software that came with it seems to have disappeared), I'll take some progress photos of my mittens, as well as this shrug which I'm making with S.R.Kertzer's Mozart in Purple Haze. It's so beautiful, the yarn knits up to look like a bunch of lilacs or violets when knit in seed stitch. I have 3 or four balls of it, and the shrug will probably take 1 and 1/2, so I'm thinking of making this little purse with it. Possibly with two strands held together. I picked up the binder rings and tubing last night, so once I'm done my Olympic knitting, this thing's getting done!
Happy Knitting everyone, and good luck with your respective olympic challenges!

Another Day Off

I have Fridays free this term, and while I should be using it to study and whatnot, I spent my day doing all things knitting related. I organized my stash by color (The majority of my stash is blue/turquoise/teal, but I was suprised to see how much pink yarn I had :S I'm not a huge fan of pink...here's hoping my secret pal is, it's really nice yarn!) and sorting out all my needles and putting the dpns together. I worked some more on Under the Hoodie, and I now have 1 sleeve finished, the back stripe on the body, and the start of the second sleeve. I'll most likely run out of my hand dyed yarn before the sleeve is done, but I'm waiting for my yarn dealer seller to get some more winter white and peacock in to finish the whole thing.
The Silky Tie Wrap might also soon go on hiatus, once I run out of Katrina. I'm a one-ball stasher, which means I don't usually by more than one colour of yarn at a time, so I end up having to go back and buy more :)
I also tried my hand at making sitch markers. I have some boring plastic rings from the craft store, but I wanted some cute ones that really stood out. Plus I wanted something nice to send to my secret pal (whenever it is I'm getting one---- don't get me started!). So, here's my first attempts:

Horrible picture, tweaked with Paint Shop Pro. Anyway, I used gold colored wire (don't know the gauge or anything, just that it's very pliable) and this cute plastic telephone charm I've had for YEARS. The beads are wood and ceramic, taken from an anklet I was never going to wear.

I'm very proud of this one. Same wire, with a star charm I have no idea where I got it. The beads and sequins are from a dissected hair scrunchie I was never going to wear. I can't wait to do a project that I'll need them!
I'll probably get some better wire soon, at least some silver stuff, to match all the silver charms I have. And then I'll make some sets up, four each maybe? They're SO easy to make, I'm tempted to show them to my LYS and see if they'll sell something like that.
Till next time, keep fit and have fun!

Snow Day!

We got a lot of snow overnight her in NS (about 15cm/6in) with another 15cm to come before the day's out. Which means the university is closed! yay! So, of course, I got a fair bit of knitting done already!
I've been taking Paint Shop Pro through its paces trying to get more accurate colours fro my photos and trying to make them clearer, but hey, there's only so much you can do!

Here we have my Silky Tie Wrap, at the halfway mark. It's barely visible, but on the right hand side, you can see the base triangle shape, and then the side panel and finally the tie triangle, which is a little short to my liking. Oh well, this may be a gift for someone if it doesn't fit :)

My Under the Hoodie sleeve. 68 rows down, 50 some to go. I hate sleeves for the sole fact that you have to increase so much. it means math >.>

This is a photo of my brother wearing the hat I made him for his birthday in December. It's Hot Head from SnB, made from various chunky yarns I had on hand, including Titan, my fave chunky yarn so far-it's so freakin' soft!

And last, but not least, I give you Mahoot, my other cat that is not as well represented on my blog as Carlos, his brother and partner in crime. How can he sleep like this? I don't know, but he has a chair stealing habit. I stood up to reach behind my computer and hook up my web cam, and I wasn't up more than 2 seconds when he was snuggled into this position! Lousy chair stealer!