I win.

The Harry Potter Scarf has been bound off. It's done. It's over. The loathesome beast will be departing shortly. I win. Okay the Vital stats: Red Heart Acyrillic in Claret (3 skeins) and Caron (1 skein) in some yellow, the label came off ages ago. The needles were Clover bamboo in size 8 and then I got my KP Options set and switched, much easier after that (Sticky Ickryllic+bamboo=GAH!). The dimentions on this thing are rediculous. It's like, 11 inches wide. I wasn't about to start over so too bad. If I ever did another, and that's the biggest fattest if you ever saw, I'd still do it on the same size needles, albeit with another yarn of the same weight, but I'd cut the number of sts from 90 per round to say, 60. I hated this thing. So much.

I'm right here, PennyKarma.

I know, I'm neglecting the blog. I'm sorry. But I can't seem to get anything done lately. Tuesday was awesome, though. I went to the grocery store AND the laundromat plus I reorganized the kitchen cabinets so you could actually insert or remove an item without causing a catastrophe as boxes and bags of foodstuffs cascaded upon you as you cried, "Why me!?" But that was Tuesday. Well, I suppose I get some props for yesterday, I went shopping with my fantastic MIL at the outlet mall and never lost my temper, came home and picked up, and then made Coq au Vin (from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook) for dinner. Today I couldn't tell you what I've spent my whole day doing, really. All I know is that the only time I wasn't actively doing something was when I spent 10 minutes skimming through a BSG podcast, when I gave myself a cheapass spa pedicure (this can be done by sitting on your bathroom counter with your feet in the sink), and just now when I popped on to check email and whatnot. The time flies, I tell you. We are really enjoying the new place and I've been spending most of my time trying to make it look less like a werehouse and more like we live here. I'm working on the Harry Potter Scarf and refuse to get out any other project until it's done. I loathe it but it's going much quicker now that I got my new KP Options needle set for my birthday. The shorter cord is the perfect length for the number of sts I'm working on so I could finally ditch the annoying two circ method. So here's the living room. Please note the Harry Potter Scarf on the couch. This picture was taken over a week ago (I intended to blog, you see) and since then I've steam cleaned the couch, put up pictures, and put in a real lamp instead of the lava lamps. This is the kitchen which despite looking very large has no decent sized cupboards or drawers. They're all oddly shaped. This is my new nephew, the one who got the colorful sweater. Well, I'm off to clean more and possibly cook. I'm thinking leftover cassarole. If I live, I'll try to post something interesting tomorrow. Oh, what am I saying, my obit will be interesting.

On a roll

Sometimes you hit your stride. I didn't think I'd finish my Christmas knitting letalone another project (however small). But here it is, another project. I whipped up this little sucker mostly yesterday. It's the Spiral Rib Bag from One Skein (it's not one of the patterns you can see on the viewable pages). Mine is knit up in some Colinette ribbon yarn (they show the color better than I can!) that I had no idea what I'd ever use it for. I had two substantial skeins of it at one point but gave the nice one away to an SP. So then I was left with this other skein of beautiful, expensive yarn I couldn't throw out but also couldn't untangle. After something like four hours one day (I had to lock the cat in the bathroom because she, having never done anything like it before, decided that the umbrella swift was her nemesis and that it had to be destroyed) managed to turn that tangled skein into three small balls. Then I was faced with what to do with them. For well over a year they've been in a box, almost a little bag, almost a small scarf, almost, almost, almost. Then I came across this pattern and thought, maybe. As it turned out I couldn't get gague with it. The width was right but the rows were about half what they should be, or so I thought. So instead of doing the pattern 1 1/2 times I did it twice and enede up with a taller bag, go figure. I went crazy with the I-cord last night and ended up with a good 10 extra inches of that too. Good thing too, it still seems short to me. All in all it's a nice little gift for someone when I'm unprepared later this month. I think it may actually go to Darth's Teacher at the end of this week. Though, Edina would like it. I have enough yarn left that I might be able to make a second one. If not, the bottom is knit last so I could use a different yarn for that or felt a disk to sew on or something. I should line it but you all know how I feel about sewing. Meh! What next? Um... I'm thinking I'd like to try to knit a sweater for a friend of mine now that Knit Picks has a superwash available. I'm thinking Durrow which I'm totally in love with. I wonder if I have the staying power for a whole sweater. I seem to be getting better at finishing things but there's a Harry Potter scarf under my bed that says otherwise. The thought of trying to finish that makes me want to cry. Or throw up. Or both.

The yarn is plotting against me!

Yep, it's Tuesday again. Lovin' that Tuesday mellow. Ahhhh. I'm just sitting here, working on tomorrow's story and thinking about all my UFOs. Man, why'd I have to go and do that? Ugh, now I'm mad at myself. AS you can see I took down my rarely updated progress bars. They didn't make me feel accomplished and I never remembered to update them. Do you ever look around at your UFOs and think about the (at least) three projects you need to start and the (at least) five projects you want to start and just want to scream? More to the point do you want to scream, "FINE! YOU WIN! I'M NEVER GOING TO FINISH ANYTHING! I'VE SPREAD MYSELF TO THIN! YOU WIN UFOS! YOU WIN YARN! IF I SPENT EVERY WAKING HOUR KNITTING I'D STILL NEVER GET IT ALL DONE! I LOSE AND YOU WIN!" Okay I guess no one else probably feels like their yarn is out to get them but my yarn is out to get me! Or maybe I'm out to get me and I just project it on the yarn. No, that can't be it. As you know I have several UFO's lying around including but not limited to the Harry Potter Scarf (slightly over half done), the Somewhat Cowel (maybe 25% done?), Satchel (I finally got an idea on how to make the strap adjustable!), and a tiny bit of one sock I started over the weekend with yarn that I bought about a year ago. I really should start a vest for my MIL since the vest I gave her for her birthday last year ended up with her MIL because it didn't fit. For a year I've been promising her a new vest and having trouble with yarns and patterns (does no one make vests anymore?) and finally I think I've found one, Veste Everest. Turns out, that sucker is a lot of work that you actually have to pay attention to. I really should start the sweater I was making for my mom for her birthday IN SEPTEMBER that I had to frog because of errors I couldn't seem to fix. I'd really like to make myself a hat to sleep in with some fab alpaca I have lying around here because at night it gets way cold in my house but knowing me I'll finish it as the first heat wave of real spring hits in March. I should start on Christmas gifts now so I'm not screwed when I think of it in another seven months. I want to make things for me! Me! Me! Me! I'll just end up giving them away though so whatever. I think I'm going to go find something to work on. I'm going to finish something this week. If the yarn doesn't get me first...

A bit cheerier, perhaps.

Yeah, some good stuff happened. My (large extended) family isn't drawing names for a Christmas gift exchange this year. That really helps us out considering how broke we are. One of my cousins, Hawkeye, was sorely disapointed about it so we've decided to do a mini Secret Santa between the girl cousins. There are only five of us so I'm not sure how secret it will be. The rules are (because we're all broke): 1) You have to make your gift. 2) You have to use either things you already have or spend no more than $10. You know what this means don't you, oh faithful 3 readers or so? Overalls of Shame. The time has come. It has been ordained. Other good stuff that happened this weekend: -Went out with friends on Saturday night (best part was when we got lost). All in all it was probably one of the worst night out ever but since it was still out, I'm not going to complain (much). -Saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. We even got a 15 minute intermission when the power went out. Delightful. But the movie was good, I got to see some good close ups to the scarf (I'd alter the pattern if I ever had to make another), and again I was out of the house. But the best thing that happened this weekend was I got a package frommy Hoilday Secret Pal! She seems to know me well. It included: Three hanks of 100% Alpaca in green, grey, and black. A hank of some orange sparkley yarn (wool, silk, alpaca, sparkle blend) already earmarked for an Ipod cozy for my sister who will love and cherish any orange sparkly object. The movie Incubus, starring a pre-Star Trek William Shatner and filmed in Esperanto, it's a horror movie. I can't wait to watch it, I don't even know where she found this thing. I'm sure it's going to be AWESOMELY bad. It was mentioned briefly in a bad movie thread on knitty and I said I'd love to get my hands on it, that's some good detective work, SP! She also sent me s Crocheting for Dummies and some crochet hooks so I can (hopefully) finally learn to crochet. I got a three pound bag of plain M&Ms, one of my favorite candies (must have cost a fortune to mail!). A Lantern Moon sheep tape measure which my son has named "Chompy, like the goat," I have no idea what he's talking about but it's cute anyway. She sent me Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac, which as much as I've read has been informative and amusing. Oh and a mixed CD that is spookily well made, I like all the songs. Lastly and not in the picture was a box of Hershey's Goodnight Kiss Hot chocolate mix, I don't know if she knows I boycott Nestle to the best of my ability or not but I though it was awesome that she found some non-Neslte hot chocolate! I usually have to hunt pretty hard or buy gourmet (Godiva is awesome, Ghriardelli not quite so good, Land-o-Lakes is good but don't mix it with milk, only water). And that, friends was my sweet, sweet Holiday SP haul. Hard to be bitchy with all that great stuff starin' at me. Okay, I'm off to finish Wavy so I can start on the Overalls of Shame. I have vowed to finish Wavy first. My sister has kindly agreed to let me put off the Harry Potter scarf until all my Christmas knitting is done, I think because she wants to see those overalls just as badly as you all do. EDIT: Oh yeah, the card my SP sent with the monkey on it. On the outside it says: "Know what day it is?" and inside it says: "Neither do I." In case anyone was wondering.

Lagging

I'm not even halfway done with the scarf. My fingers were hurting yesterday and I could only manage about 12 rounds before I gave up. I'm going to throw myself into it today but the likelyhood of finishing is becoming ever slimmer. I promise more interesting blogging next week. Promise.

Hold everything!

Harry Potter comes out when?!? You see, I thought it was coming out in the middle of December, not Friday. I have completed exactly three pattern repeats out of 14 on the Harry Potter scarf. Everything will be on hold this week while I'm knitting like mad. Quick edit to add the photo over there. I know it looks like four pattern repeats are completed but the first 27 rounds don't count, the pattern repeats start at the first yellow stripe.

Revived

My knitting zest has returned; any day now a package will arrive with the final components required for The Overalls of Shame. I have the pattern. I have the Glitterspun. I have almost allof the Magic Stripes. All I'm waiting on is a little package from Seven with the rest of the Magic Stripes and I'm good to go. It'd be nice to add some Fun Fur to the thigh area but I can live without it. Oh, the atrocity of it all. [cue evil laugh] I've been cheerfully knitting away on my sister's Harry Potter PoA scarf in my anticipation. Aside from a minor rant about the cheap-ass quality of the cheap-ass yarn I'm using it's been smooth sailing. I've made it through a whopping two pattern repeats! Hey, cut me some slack, the thing is 90 stitches in the round on size 8s it takes awhile to get through the 38 rounds in one pattern repeat, at least there's no purling. If you were calculating in your head it all comes out to 53,210 stitches not including the three needle bind off on both ends. The of course there will be the fringe. Can you tell that this isn't my favorite project? All in all I'm in a better mood today. But can it last? [cue music: dum DUM DUUUUM!]

KHAN!

So here's the start of the Harry Potter scarf. I've made it through a whopping ONE pattern repeat. This thing is ungodly boring. It doesn't helpthat I really don't care about Harry Potter. The worst part of all is that it's being made of the lowest quality of all acryilic yarns. Actually that's not entirely true, the yellow is a different brand that I actually like but the burgandy is itchy and awful. I covered the labels in the pic I uploaded to protect those with delicate sensibilities. Funny story about this picture. Or rather, painful accident story about this picture. Just after I took this I took a step backward and tripped over an armchair. It's not like it moved or anything, I knew it was there, I was just out of it. Since my hands were tangled it the camera strap I fell flat on my back. Like a very short tree being chopped down. As soon as I hit the ground both of the kids came running over... to jump on me. So my back hurts now. Especially the spot where the fat seam in my cheap-ass Walmart jeans bruised me. I have finally come to terms with the fact that I will not be able to knit either Elizabeth I scarf before Christmas. I'm really sad about this because I really think both intended recipiants would have really liked them. I guess there's always next year, it's not like yarn goes bad. I do have some good news though, my mom decided she'd rather give a Bubby to Erin and Lauren instead of a sheep and a llama. A Bubby takes me two days, the llamas and sheep take at least three. In all honesty I'm in a total knitting funk. I don't want to knit ANY of the things I should be working on. I want a new project. I want something I get to keep. To date I have only made myself ONE thing. Ever. My felted boots. That's it. I want a Lady Elanore Entrelac Stole (I keep gazing longingly at it in my copy of Scarf Style)! I want a Greek Pullover! I want something made out of Andean Treasure! I want hats! I want toknit whatever I want and not have any deadlines!!! I was looking through Loop-d-Loop the other day. Why? Why must I look in pattern books. I should know by now there will ALWAYS be something I want? Now I need that book and a HUGE yarn budget. Knit Pixie changed their name to Kpixie, I'm sure you've heard, until I found out about this I had never visited their site. Now there's a bunch of stuff on there I want. Like this headwrap thing. When would I EVER wear that? Never that's when. But I've gone and gawked at it several times over the last couple days. Just like this hat by the same designer. Baby Girldoesn't need that. Plus it looks like a pain to make. But it's SO cuuuuute! I also found a sweater I think Red Todd Kidd might actually wear and like. The thing is it would cost a fortune to make but since it's hempit would last forever. It would also take forever to make. Damn you Kpixie! (I'm screaming this in a Shatner, Wrath of Khan kind of way:) KPIXIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!