Distractions and Progress

it's been a long month without knitting around here ... first I was distracted by crochet ... then a trip that despite being a passenger on train, plane and car (the latter for over 24 hours of awake time), produced no stitches ... then this weekend Wes and I got a Wii!! however, tonight in front of TRIPLE overtime in the Stanley Cup Playoffs (go Pens!) I pulled out the Flutter-Sleeve Cardigan and got to work.
I haven't been able to figure out what went wrong on the back ... if it was my misinterpreting the pattern as I tried to make short-row shoulders, or if I just miscounted the rows, but I threaded in a lifeline and started ripping out the last few inches and of course, didn't thread very evenly so this frogging will take more work than I thought.
Instead of getting discouraged, I just left the back on the lifeline and cast on for the first front half!! so far so good there :) I'm going to try and solve the back problem before I get to the shoulders on the front so I can decide to try short-rows, or just bind off as the pattern suggests, but no thinking tonight ... I'm writing now in the intermission between 2OT and 3OT and the game is back on!!

Ducks! Ducks! Ducks! Ducks!

just in case you didn't notice, the Ducks dominated the Senators last night 6-2 to be the FIRST CALIFORNIA TEAM TO WIN THE STANLEY CUP! (suck on that Kings and Sharks!) I almost cried at the first goal because I wanted to be AT the game sooooooo bad, but we couldn't afford the crazy ticket prices, so Wes and I settled down in the bar of J.J. Brewski's and had a grand old time in Camarillo.

who says the Neidermayers are the first siblings to win the cup since 1982? Check out me and Luke!

but at least Wes and Dad and I made it to one awesome game, the Western Conference clincher against the Red Wings. Best game ever, except for last night's of course, but I wasn't there so I can't claim it.

ducks

lazy = more knitting

had a mostly sit around the house and be lazy weekend (with some hockey! go Ducks!) so I got lots of knitting done on Sahara. the two sides of the front were knit with two different balls of yarn, so progress was often impeded by untangling of the yarn, but it is turning out really nice (looooooooove the smoothness of the yarn) and so far the gauge/fit seems to be right too ... I knit down the front to the arm shaping and attached the back to the front, but only on the sides under the armholes, and am now knitting flat (with only one ball of yarn!) for a few inches before waist decreases. after a few inches of decreases, I'll have to cast-on 20 stitches in the middle of the front and then attach to knit the rest of the top in the round.
on the picture to the right, I blacked out the stuff I haven't done yet. doesn't look like I've gotten very far, but the back is being completed at the same time, so it is really twice as much as is showing. the trim on the sleeves and neckline will be added after the rest of top is knit. the amount of cleavage showing is customizable too, just sew the center seam higher up or lower, I guess! ha.

knitting with Keith

while sitting upstairs on the lunchroom porch knitting on Sahara (finally started it last weekend! more on that in a minute ...) and listening to a mix of Keith Urban tunes in preparation for the concert in a few weeks, I discovered it takes all of "God's Been Good To Me" to knit one row, but I can get a whole lap done (knit one row, purl the next) before "Somebody Like You" finishes up. That's even with the inevitable daydreaming that comes with "Somebody Like You" ... since I walked down the isle to marry my sweet Wesley to that song.
so, back to the knitting: Sahara had a tricky start that caused me to put it off for a while (I bought the pattern and yarn back in February!). finally I went to see Lois at AFY last week to learn how to crochet cast-on. The instructions that came with the pattern said to incorporate the knitting needle into the single-crochet row so the stitches end up on the knitting needle, but that confused me! Lois then showed how she would do it: just knit a chain of however many stitches it says to cast on, then thread the knitting needle through the back loops. This sounded hard to me too (my ventures into crochet have been less than successful), but a trip to visit Grandma crocheter extrordinaire was already on the schedule for the following weekend, so I asked her to make the chain for me. It took a couple tries to get the tension right (loose enough so I could pick up the stitches), but we got it in the end. This week has been busy at work and at home (got the new Giada De Laurentiis and have been cooking up a storm! also, discovered the best cookie recipe ever ...) but after my lunchtime date with Keith, I am down to the arm shaping on the back. yes, I said "down" and not "up" to the arm shaping ... this sweater is knit from the top down, so I have the back of the shoulders finished now. After the arm shaping is finished on the back, I'll put these live stitches on a holder, pull out the crochet chain and pick up the stitches on the top and knit down the front. I was overwhelmed when I first bought the pattern, but looking at it one step at a time, it seems a lot easier. So for now, I am just thinking about m1 stitches that I'll do tonight if I can resist picking up my other new book (the only thing that got me to put it down yesterday was an afternoon of Pirates and Hockey.)

my own personal "one with the jam"

Saturday Wes and I drove down to the Staples Center with a buy-one-get-one-free coupon in hand for the Kings game vs. the Nashville Predators. The coupon (and a low-attendance due to an afternoon game the same weekend as the LA Marathon and the Kings general suckyness) enabled us to get ice-level tickets behind the Kings home goal. From this vantage point we had a great view of seven of the nine goals scored in the game (6 from Nashville, yeah!) including two awesome goals from Paul Kariya to make my stalker trip complete and happy. I also realized that Peter Forsberg is one scary Swede when he's skating full speed towards his opponents goal. He already scared me, but seeing him from that angle brought new levels of terror.
I brought along Wes' second navy sock to work on during the 65 mile trip and made significant progress, I also knit on the way home and my 130 miles of knitting produced a too-tall top of sock. oops. When I sat down yesterday to do the heel and gusset, I realized I had knit an extra half-inch on the top of the sock. I have some more heel decreases left to do before I knit a jillion rounds for his huge foot, but I was anxious to move on to another project last night. I couldn't take any more of the plain blue on tiny (size 4) needles so I cast on Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted weight (color bittersweet) on two size 8 circulars to knit myself a hat with seed stitch edging and ear flaps ... soo cute. the color is the same I am making my second pair of socks out of too. I am almost to the decreases on the hat, so hopefully with a couple good nights of knitting tonight and tomorrow while Wes is at work (only FOUR more night shifts left!) I can get his socks and my hat done this week and get on to finish that second pair of socks too. I have half decided to shelve my brown sweater until after summer as it is getting warmer here and I have two other spring/summer sweaters I want to make. I checked out Wendy Bernard's blog this morning and I swear she lives here in town. I already thought she lived somewhere in the county due to comments about local places (Ronald Regan Library in Simi, Santa Barbara Zoo, pictures of the Ventura pier, etc) but in yesterday's post there was a picture of an AFY shopping bag full of yarn! I feel like a bit of a stalker realizing this (too much stalking for one weekend!), but mostly I am soo anxious to knit up my Sahara now. She had pictures of more finished Saharas from other knitters and I want mine! I already decided I am going to do the sleeveless style and have bought (more than) enough yarn to complete it. Now I just need to cast on and get started once I finish the socks and hats and more socks I have planned ... better do it soon or I will be shelving Sahara to go back to the brown hoodie in September!